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Coordinates: 51°26'21?N 2°15'45?W? / ?51.439202, -2.26249
Colerne, a medium sized village, lies midway between Bath and Chippenham in the county of Wiltshire, England. It has an elevated position (some 550 feet up) and overlooks the Box Valley to the south (home of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Box Tunnel). It is bordered by a section of the famous Roman road, the Fosse Way to the west and by Bybrook to the south east.
Colerne had a population of 2,807 in 2001, and is frequently described as The Village on the Hill.[1]
[edit] Placename
The name Colerne appears in the Domesday Book (1086), but over the centuries there have been various interpretations of the name such as Collerne or Cullerne. The Malmesbury Register of 1156 makes reference to Culerna or Culerne. Local pronunciation leans towards the cul form.
This leads to some ambiguity in the meaning of Colerne. Gover, Mawer and Stenton talk of about the aern meaning house in their 1939 publication The Place Names of Wiltshire. They say col-aern might well denote a house where charcoal was made, used or stored.
The altitude of the village lends credence to the idea that the first syllable col is derived from the Welsh or Cornish col - a peak. This is discussed in John C. Langstaff's 1911 publication Notes on Wiltshire Names. This would mean the dwelling on the peak. Alternatively it could mean the cold dwelling from the Anglo-Saxon cald or cold.
However none of the above are true. Colerne or Cullerne, as spelt in the Domesday book is a derivation of a celtic word meaning Holly. A place where 'Holly' grows. The Gaelic, or more accurately Goidelech language of the celts suggests 'Cuellan' as being Holly. The Brythonnic version ie., Welsh, Celyn is Holly or Celynnen meaning Holly branch. Eventually after invasions from Europe and the development of the language what we now know as 'Old English' Holly was spelt 'Holegn' with 'H' pronounced gutturally. At North Colerne there is the remains of an Iron Age hill fort where it is noticeable that certain species of Holly trees grow. Colerne was named by the Celts as a place where Holly grows. There is a place in Southern Ireland 'Collon' which means the same thing.
[edit] Local government
Colerne civil parish is administered by a parish council, North Wiltshire District Council, and Wiltshire County Council.
[edit] Trivia
[edit] Notable residents
[edit] The Colerne Donkey
According to village legend, a Colerne parson in former years owned a donkey to which he was much attached. While the clergyman was away, the unfortunate ass died, and the sexton felt it proper to have the beast buried in consecrated ground. But the undertaker, inexperienced in interring specimens of E. asinus, neglected to dig the grave wide and deep enough, so the donkey was buried feet-up with its hooves sticking out. The parson had the animal reburied when he returned, but the story was already out, and well into the 20th century young men from the nearby villages of Box or Marshfield who were at a loose end needed only visit Colerne and mention the word Donkey sufficiently loudly in order to be rewarded with a violent altercation on a moment's notice. It was also the habit for visiting footballers unacquainted with Colerne history to be dispatched to the home dressing room with a piece of sandpaper and instructions to ask to polish the donkey's hooves. This usually resulted in the erstwhile innocent becoming sadder and wiser in short order.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
(Source: Wikipedia) |