"Acorn Yard" Origin of field name ?

We have a small one acre field at the end of the drive called "Acorn Yard" on the old Tithe map any suggestions as to the origin of the name?



We have planning for a retirement bungalow there so I want to keep the name and call it Acorn Yard but I'm being overruled by OH who says she will not live in a yard!
 
I recently bought a book from a charity shop "English Field Names" by John Field.He says:

"Acorn Yard , Spurstow Cheshire : self explanatory"
That's the one , but not self explanatory to me, but I've only been here 50 odd years.

As far back as 1839 its just a small field.

Does it back onto woodland ? Where the pigs were housed when they went for pannage ?
Had to look up panage the right of feeding pigs or other animals in a wood.

No woodland in last couple of hundered years, but plenty of oaks around.

Thanks.
 

chaffcutter

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
S. Staffs
Try and keep the name if you can, it’s history. We live ina converted stable and I tried hard to find a suitable name connected to the working horses who lived here,but everything was declared incomprehensible to anyone who knew nothing about carthorses and ended up with the uninspiring The Old Stables. I suppose that’s history too but not very exciting.
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
That's the one , but not self explanatory to me, but I've only been here 50 odd years.

As far back as 1839 its just a small field.


Had to look up panage the right of feeding pigs or other animals in a wood.

No woodland in last couple of hundered years, but plenty of oaks around.

Thanks.
Think if you do a bit more digging it will become more self explanatory. Spurstow has a history of brine springs and the process of leaching acorns relies on the use of salt brine water so Acorn Yard I would suggest is were the leaching process took place using the acorns grown locally. What you need to find is the brine source close to Acorn Yard which would give good evidence for this use.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
From wiki
The word "yard" is a homonym of "yard" in the sense of an enclosed area of land. This second meaning of "yard" has an etymology related to the word "garden" and is not related to the unit of measurement.
I haven't heard of any other use of Yard than a paved cobbled area other than stackyard. The stackyard was where the hay stacks were.
If the one in Spurstow is you then I assume you have found this website. https://maps.cheshireeast.gov.uk/tithemaps/
Even tells you who was working the land back then, Tollemache seemed to own nearly all of it.
There are fields over there referring to storks which suggests they were regular back then.
 
Think if you do a bit more digging it will become more self explanatory. Spurstow has a history of brine springs and the process of leaching acorns relies on the use of salt brine water so Acorn Yard I would suggest is were the leaching process took place using the acorns grown locally. What you need to find is the brine source close to Acorn Yard which would give good evidence for this use.
The health spring is nearly a mile away and is sulphurous , as was the borehole we drilled, only aware of a foul smelling sulphurous spring on the farm, not aware of any brine, its supposedly 80+ meters down.


Looking back through old maps to 1839 gives no clues to name or evidence of a paved/ cobbled area.

The field is at the end of the drive, been a farm here forever, so it could have been used for stray stock, or stock being sent off, but thoughts are just wild guesses.
 

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