h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello!

Not sure if anyone can help, but a friend was on a woodland walk recently and the guide described the type of boggy woodland terrain they were walking through as an 'aldercar'.

I have searched everywhere and so far can find no explanation or further reference to this word - does anyone know anything more about its roots and context?

I suspect it may be Old English or Anglo Saxon but now defunct.

Please let me know at [email protected] if you have any further info re this subject, as I'm not sure how to follow this thread.

Thanks, Rod

Hi Rod,

A "carr" is a marshy area, a fen. Alders are trees that thrive in wet ground. So the term might have been "alder carr".

Cheers,

JTG

Could also possibly mean 'old marsh'. 'Alder' means 'elder' and 'Ald' means 'old'.

Alder - a catkin-bearing tree of the birch family with toothed leaves, found especially on damp ground and riverbanks. (Germanic origin)

Carr - fen woodland or scrub that is typically dominated by alder or willow. (Middle English origin)