Every Place Name Tells a Story

英國大使館文化教育處

Every place in the United Kingdom has aname which tells a story！ The names of towns and

villages tell us about the history of the country.

Thousands of years ago， people called theCelts lived all over Britain. Then the Romanscame. Many towns in England have names thatend in "-chester" because the Romans called theirtowns "castra". The Romans never got to Walesor Scotland and many towns there have Celtic names. Place names in Wales oftenbegin with "llan" which means "church".

After the Romans left England， people called Anglo-Saxons arrived. Their villagesoften got their names from the family who lived there. Some names ended in "-ham" soTottenham means "the village of a man called Totta". Many Anglo-Saxon villages alsoended in "-ton" （this means village too）， so Upton is "a village on a hill" and Moretonmeans "a village by a lake".

The Vikings came to England too， from Scandinavia. Their villages ended in "-by"，for example Kirkby comes from the words "church" and "village". And then finally， in1066， England became Norman. The Normans spoke French and gave the place name"grange" （which means farm） to many places all over England.

Activity 1

Below are the names of six places in the United Kingdom. Where did they gettheir names from？ Choose a-e for each place name 1–5.

Use one answer two times. An example has been done for you：

Example： Grangemouthe. the Normans

1. Bolton

2. Grimsby

3. Birmingham

4. Llandudno

5. Manchester

Activity 2

Write the letter of each sentence （a- -f） next to the numbers 1-6， so that 1 iswhat happened first and 6 is what happened last， to tell the history of British placenames. An example has been done for you.

a. The Romans returned to Rome.

b. The Normans became kings of England.

C. The Anglo-Saxons came to England from Europe.

d. The Celts came to Britain.

e. The Romans arrived and built towns and cities.

f. The Vikings travelled to Britain from Norway and Denmark.

1._

2.

3.a

4.

5.

6.

Activity 3

Complete each question 1- -5 with a word from the box. Add an“s”to verbs ifyou need to.

An example has been done for you.

Example： What language do you speak？

1. Do you know what your name

2. What do youa“farm”in your language？

3. Can you think of a word that has the same sound as“red" but a different_____ ？

4. What's the__for “history" in your language？

5. What are castlesin your language？

Now answer each question to think about your own language.

Activity 4

What does the name of your town or village mean？ What does it tell youabout the history of your country？