What’s in a name? Do we live in Shawdaleworth?

EVER wondered how Saddleworth got its name?
A new book, written by a former teacher from a family with strong local roots, provides one possible answer.

‘Musards, Staveleys and Shaws, An early history of Saddleworth Forest’ has recently been produced by Carolyn France.

Carolyn’s father was works manager at the Royal George Mills in Greenfield until the outbreak of the Second World War.

When he left and joined the Army in 1939, it broke a century long association with the historic woollen mill on the banks of the River Tame.

John Shaw, her great-great-grandfather, was the first schoolmaster of Friezland School.

“I wrote the book because my immediate family said that I should make a record for the future of what I had discovered as they seemed to think that was worth doing,” Carolyn told the Independent.

“Since retiring from teaching, one of my hobbies has been historical research and in particular, family research,” she added.

“As most of my own ancestors originated in Saddleworth, the area has been a focal point for this research.

“I grew up in Manchester but spent many holidays with my grandmother in Greenfield. So that’s why I also know the area so well.

“We used to go for long walks over the moors and hardly meet a soul in those days. Rather different now, I think!”

What the book lacks in copious amounts of pages, it makes up for with detail.

So, what is Carolyn’s theory on the naming of Saddleworth?

“The derivation of the name has never been satisfactorily explained,” she writes in the book.
“My suggestion is that it comprises three elements, all of which are Anglo Saxon in origin: ‘worth’, ‘dale’ and ‘shaw’, giving Shawdaleworth.

“Shaw being a level area at the foot of a hill, Dale is a northern word for a valley and Worth deriving from an Anglo-Saxon word for work.”

Carolyn is considering donating several copies of ‘Musards, Staveleys and Shaws’ to Saddleworth Museum.

Other books have been given to university libraries while copies, costing £15, are available from Carolyn at 30 Lawn Road, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO50 4GN.