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the mouth of a
stream. The general conclusion from all of which is that the word
signifies a temporary shield or shelter as distinguished from a permanent
habitation, such as a hall or castle. This is the most obvious derivation
of the name which is generally at an early day written shele, which in the Shropshire dialect would be written
phonetically shale, and which word in the West Country represented the
temporary summer shield or shelter of a herdsman.
-When twilight
dimmed the green hill side,
Far in his
lonely shiel the shepherd died. [Erskine.]
[History of County
of Durham, by Robert Surtees, London, 1820, vol.
2, page 94.]
We have in this
same Staffordshire locality another place with the same termination,
namely Lilleshall, a parish three miles south
of Newport.
The old contraction of which, Lialeshelle, as late
as 1872 still lingered among the people. The last element of which has
been compared to the shield, board or breast of a plough, 1'escutcheon or
shield in the treatise of Walter de Biblesworth
XIII century in Wr. Vocals, vol. 1, page 169. [Shropshire Word Book, by
C. A. Jackson, page 384.] Then there is possibly Eccleshall, another
Staffordshire vill, situate about a mile from Pershall.
In fact with few exceptions this termination de-notes a Staffordshire-Shropshire-border place name.
This word Shale
or Shall in all of its forms, when used to describe the habitaŽtion of man, always implies a temporary
structure. For example,
I saugh him carien a wind-melle
Under a walshe-note shale. [Chaucer, House of Fame, 1. 1281.]
A martian kinde of men, who Trom the moneth of April
unto August lye out scattering and Summering (as they tearme
it) with their cattell, in little cottages here
and there, which they call sheales and shealings. [Holland,
tr. of Camden,
p. 506. Davies.]
To be wi' thee in Hieland shiel
Is worth lords
at Castlecary.
[Ballad of Lizie Baillie, ii.,
Chamber's
Scottish Song, iii. 144.]
The swallow jinkin' round my shiel,
[Burns, Bess and
her Spinning-Wheel.]
The second
element in the name is the equivalent of a shield or temporary protection,
and this would apply to the base of an army or cantonment. The name
records the fact that King Peada, while yet a
prince, encamped or made this his base encampment, and he may have
wintered here in his campaign with his army. This section was in those days
the hunters' paradise, and this was a kingly hunters' camp, visited
yearly, when it would be gay with all the surroundŽings
of royalty.
In the light of
subsequent investigation it appears that King Peada
had erected a temporary shield or shelter just outside of what is now Eccleshale, where he stationed troops to guard
against the encroachments of the Welsh, intending to immediately proceed
to the erection of a castle or fort at this place. His reign lasted less
than a year, so that he died before his plans had been carried into
effect. Upon his death, there was a period of two years during which Oswi of Northumberland, the father-in-law of Peada reigned in Mercia. After this Wulfhere, the brother of Peada, reigned. He
carried out his brother's plans in the main, but did not build upon the
old site. Hence it became known locally as
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