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

For some reason BBC does not like my formatting today, here it is again...


Plymouth Exile,

Thanks for this new information about Trehoro. Pahoraxwick, and later Bartonweek, certainly seems like a possible candidate. I could not track down Bartonweek however, but found Pancrasweek and The Barton and Barton Gate.

Is this the area, or am I looking in the wrong place?

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=229500&y=105500&z=3&sv=229500,105500&st=4&ar=N&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf

Another possible Trehoro location;

The 1769 map does not represent distance or position very accurately, so I followed the river Torridge, Trehoro appearing to lie on a third 'Clavet' presumably being yet another spelling of Clovelly, 'Biddiford' being more or less the same, and 'Newton' probably being Newton St Petrock. This led me to this area.

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=230100&y=118375&z=3&sv=230100,118375&st=4&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf&dn=581&ax=230100&ay=118375

(Clicking the minus sign at the bottom immediately shows the location in context at 10 km scale.)

The Horton Bridge and the Horton Farm I found in this area could preserve the original 'horo' element. The 'tre' being Cornish for farm makes the Horton Farm a possible candidate.

I've been looking carefully at my map by John Speed 1610-11 and Trehoro is shown to the right of Souldon "Soldon",i've cross checked i'ts alignment with Houlsworthy "Holsworthy",Black Torrington and Bradworthye "Bradworthy".I think it could be "Thuborough".
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=233800&y=110880&z=3&sv=233800,110880&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf&ax=233800&ay=110880
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=233800&y=110880&z=5&sv=235000,115000&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf

Bleidh,

I think you have managed to localise the site of ‘Trehoro’ quite well, using Speed’s map, but there is a good reason to believe that it was not ‘Thuborough’. According to W.G. Hoskins, Thuborough was a Domesday estate, whose name has remained unchanged (apart from spelling changes) since 1087. As far as I can see, this leaves one possibility, i.e. ‘Hole Farm’ (OS Grid Reference SS 337103). Certainly a translation of ‘Trehoro’ would be something like ‘Horo Farm’, which could have been corrupted to ‘Hole Farm’.

I suspect that a name something like ‘Horo’ or perhaps ‘Horel’ may have been a personal name local to the area, as we find the place-name ‘Horrellsford’ in the same area (just north of Milton Damerel. If this was the case, then ‘Trehoro’ would have been ‘Horo’s (or ‘Horel’s’) Farm’.

Bleidh,

I’m interested that you’ve found another map with Trehoro shown. Is the 1610-11 John Speed map available on the internet or have you only a paper copy? If it is on the net could you post a link to the page.

The 1765 map linked to below doesn’t show Trehoro, but it does show a settlement called Horton or Harton in approximately the same location as I proposed for Trehoro in the Streetmap example I posted. This area now contains Horton Bridge and Horton Farm. The bridge and the farm probably taking their name from the now disappeared Horton, and that itself possibly from the older Trehoro.

http://www.devon.gov.uk/etched?url=etched/ixbin/hixclient.exe&_IXP_=1&_IXR=101785

Horton-Harton can be seen under the River Torridge, towards the top left of the map.

This 1765 map is actually older than the one showing Trehoro in its possible original form, but it looks more formal and is considerably more accurate.

On the same web site, a 1575 map of the area definitely shows a place name beginning with ‘Tre’ in approximately this location, although it is hard to make out the rest of the word.

http://www.devon.gov.uk/etched?url=etched/ixbin/hixclient.exe&_IXP_=1&_

I missed off the end of the 1575 map URL, the 'tre' name is vaguely discernable above the hills shown to the north of Holsworthy.

http://www.devon.gov.uk/etched?url=etched/ixbin/hixclient.exe&_IXP_=1&_IXR=101950

I do have a hard copy of John Speed's map, but I have located an online copy among others :
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_Pages/ENG_pages/dev.htm
J Speed is available from Ebay for £2.50 + £1.50 p&p
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Replica-John-Speed-map-of-17th-Century-Devonshire_W0QQitemZ7355287785QQcategoryZ63614QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I also have a much better map by J.Blaeu same period available sometimes on Ebay.
Off subject but worth a look. :-http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/index.htm

>but it only has 16000 place names on it

Oops, just had another look, and it seems I misread the figure, which should have had an extra nought on the end, bringing it closer to the quarter-million or so placenames featured in the Ordnance Survey's gazetteer.