Tuesday 30 November 2010

Family roots: Golborne

It has been very cold in the UK these last few days. Apparently it got down to minus seventeen degrees in one part of Wales, which is very cold for this early in the Winter.

We stayed last weekend with Jane's mother who lives in Golborne, near Warrington, fairly close to Manchester. Jane's family have lived in this area for a long time. The place-name Golborne is derived from the Old English word 'golde' meaning "marigold", as in the famous orange/yellow flower, and "burna", the original spelling for a brook, burn or stream. Hence the meaning is probably "The stream where the marigold grows".  Aaaahh!   
The weather conditions there have not been extreme, but have given me some great photo opportunities:-

Sunrise

Deciduous trees at the far end of the "Back Field"

The empty greenhouse illuminated by the rising sun

Frost patterns on the greenhouse window panes




Magnolia buds

Sedum

4 comments:

  1. Interesting! Some of my family settled in Golborne in the mid-late 1800s, after leaving Yorkshire. In fact a number of them were scattered all over the Manchester area. Salford, Golborne, Horwich, Ardwick, Wigan etc. I never really thought about the meaning of town name of Golborne before though. The golden sunrise shot seem perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi to you at Curbstone Valley Farm; Jane says "find out what his / her / their surname is -- we might know the family!"

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love finding out the meaning of place names -- thanks for explaining! It's neat how frost patterns sometimes look like starfish, too! Great photos.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely photos Mark. I particularly like the empty greenhouse - slightly mournful but rather beautiful too.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking time to leave me a comment! Please note that Comment Moderation is enabled for older posts.