Northop

If bilingual road signs for our village of Northop/Llaneurgain had been used in ancient times, we would be able to date the time the first sign would have been put up to the year 828 AD.

I was reading a document describing itself as a ‘Historical Account of The Celts,’ - dated January 1^st 1832. In this document is stated that Northop derives its name from the Saxon language – North and Thorpe, with Thorpe meaning village, so we were the ‘North Village.’ The document asserts that our village was given the name in the year 828, after the surrender of Chester to Mercian King Egbert when the whole of Flintshire (Teigengl) was brought under the rule of the Saxons.

Chester (Caer in Welsh (meaning Fort)) was a ‘Welsh City’ in the Dark Ages – ‘Welsh City’ is probably the wrong term, as during this period all ‘Britons,’ not of Roman heritage, would be Celts and speaking Welsh of a kind. From 607AD, the Britons and the Saxons fought over Chester on a number of occasions but, the final subjugation of the Britons in Chester, appears to have taken place between the years 828 and 830 when King Egbert overran the city and placed the whole of the area within the territory of the ‘Mercian Kingdom.’ 

As Chester was the ‘Capital City’ for our area of North Wales, that meant for the first time in history ‘Llan Eurgain’ came under Saxon rule. The Saxons altered the village name because it was a symbol of their subjugation of the people and the area…doubtless too, the invaders could not readily pronounce the Welsh name and so they altered it to a more pronounceable Saxon name: North Thorpe! The Saxons were here to stay, although in subsequent years the Welsh would re-conquer the area and indeed remained in control right up until the time of Edward I.

more on this to come...