Image ID: 25773

Willow Wong

Courtesy of Burton Joyce and Bulcote Local History Society

Burton_Joyce
England

The unusual name of a 'wong' derives from the old Danish word for 'field'. (There is a line in 'Havelok the Dane' which refers to 'Woods and wonges.') The East Midlands was once one of the great strongholds of Danelaw. The Danelaw (from the Old English Dena lagu) was an area of England under the administrative control of the Vikings (or Danes, or Norsemen) from the late 9th century. Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Stamford and Derby became known as the 'Five Boroughs'. 'Borough' derives from the Old English word 'burg', meaning a fortified town, and many local town and village names still reflect this Danish/Viking influence. Common Scandinavian elements in place-names are: -by, -thorp, -trop, or -thorpe, -toft, -tofts, -thwait or -thwaite, -holm or -holme,-burg' or -borough, and ness. (Think of local villages in your area to see how many contain these endings!)

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Burton Joyce Library