| Viking
Origins |
| The
Scales surname is of Scandinavian
origin. Two possible original forms in the Old
Norse are skali (a shelter or shieling)
and scala (a mountain cwm or habitation).
It is interesting to note that the latinised
version of the name in early English documents is
Scalis and that the name may have
arrived in Italy as Della Scala. Scalae
is coincidentally also the Latin for staircase
or ladder (see The Italian
Connection? on this site for further
information). |
| There
are three hamlets in Cumbria called Scales
and mediaeval sources list other related
placenames in west Lancashire now lost (see
below). Norse expeditions had started at the
beginning of the 8th century, but they really
took off after the unification of Norway in 872,
when many nobles took issue with the King Harald
I. A large number settled peacefully in the newly
founded Viking kingdom of Dublin and some became
Christianised by the native Irish. However they
were expelled from Ireland beginning in 902 by
Caerbhall, leader of the Leinster Irish, and
continuing until 1014 with the Battle of
Clontarf. |
| |
| The Viking Diaspora in
North-West England |
| Many
of the ex-Norwegians from Ireland settled finally
on the Wirral peninsula (having being granted
permission to do so by Edelfrida, daughter of
Alfred the Great) and in the coastal regions of
Cumbria and especially Lancashire (less well
documented but clear from placenames), on poor
quality land largely uninhabited, and hence
undisputed by, the locals. There were many Danish
Vikings as well, especially in Wirral, as
witnessed by placenames ending in -by. |
| The
Danes originally settled in East Anglia from 865
but soon moved north to Northumbria. Analysis of
placenames suggests a further migration to
Cumbria and south-west Scotland and from there to
join the Norwegians on the Isle of Man. It is
thought that the Wirral Danes arrived in quantity
from there. |
| The
existence of two places called Thingwall (Old
Norse for assembly field), one in
central Wirral and one on the outskirts of what
is now Liverpool, points to these as being major
meeting points or parliaments for the entire
region and suggests a concentration of
Scandinavian people in these areas. |
| |
| The Viking Diaspora in Northern
France |
| The
Vikings (Danish and Norwegian) began to invade
northern France in the early ninth century and
were officially granted the land that now
corresponds to the eastern part of Normandy in a
treaty of 911.
Normand is the word for northman in
several Scandinavian languages. By 933 they had grabbed
land to the west making up an area that more or
less corresponds to the present geographical
region of Normandy. The Northmen became
the frenchified Normans through the
merging of their language and culture. |
| The
Duchy of Normandy emerged around 1000. William
II, Duke of Normandy, laid claim to the English
throne when his cousin Edward the Confessor died
without heir. The claim was disputed by Harold,
leading to the Norman Conquest of England.
English nobles were initially permitted to keep
their land, but rebellions over the next four
years led William to grant much of it to his own
followers and the native English aristocracy was
essentially wiped out. One of the Norman nobles
who had come over with William was a certain
Hardouin d’Escaliers, who became Hardwin de
Scalers when he settled in England (Escalier
is also the French for staircase). It is
with him and his descendents, mostly associated
with the counties of Hertfordshire,
Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, that most of
this site is concerned. |
| |
| Scales
Placenames |
| The three Cumbrian hamlets called
Scales are shown on the maps on the right. The
one at the top lying 8 miles north-east of
Keswick is the best known, especially to walkers.
I’ve known this place for some time. There
is a nice pub called the White Horse Inn.
It is the start of a superb walk up Blencathra
via Scales Fell, Scales Tarn and Sharp Edge. The
one in the middle is 6 miles south of Ulverston
and the one at the bottom is 14 miles north-east
of Penrith. There are farms around here called Scales
Hall, Low Scales and Howscales.
A number of other places in Cumbria and Yorkshire
have Scale as part of their name.
Documentary sources list many places with related
names in existence in West Lancashire in the 12th
and 13th centuries that are no more. Among these
are Eschales, Le Scholes, Scales
(in West Derby, Liverpool, very near Thingwall), Scoles,
Le Scadelondis and Scalecroft. |
| |
| Possible
Origins of the Present Scales Name |
| In view of the above discussion,
it is highly significant that the UK censuses of
the 19th century show a particular concentration
of the Scales name in Lancashire,
Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Thus it seems
that those now in possession of this name (myself
included) could have had their origins with
either the Norman or the Irish Vikings, the noble
or 'ignoble' branches, depending upon the part of
the country to which they can trace their
ancestry. |
