addendum...
you wrote mire rather than mere which makes it even worse ie mire=bog so
foul mire= stinking bog!!!
----- Original Message -----
From: Tim Cattley <timjhcat(a)tiscali.co.uk>
To: <CATLEY-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2005 10:43 PM
Subject: Re: [CAT...] James Catley, Hertfordshire
Lynda,
It is surely most improbable that early inhabitants of Fowlmere would want
to live next to a Foul Mere, let alone call it as such?
The interpretation of these words suggests a lake, or body of water
blocked
or choked with foreign matter which may be stinking and polluted.
The settlement is recorded in The Doomsday Book (1069?) as Fuglemaere
which
translates as waterbird lake from the French/Norman language. This
today
is
interpreted as bird lake. (Fowl=bird, mere=lake)
Fowlmere certainly has still water courses with reeds and water fowl and
in
the 11th Century before the draining of East Anglia took place to
any
extent, the areas of water and wildfowl nearby would have been much bigger
and thus a major feature.
Regards Tim C.
----- Original Message -----
From: <Lyndapowers04(a)aol.com>
To: <CATLEY-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2005 7:44 PM
Subject: Re: [CAT...] James Catley, Hertfordshire
> Fowlmere just in case you would like to know was formerley Foul Mire -
> obvious to some I realise but have found out loads of interesting stuff
since
> purchasing The Victoria History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle
of Ely
> Volume IX - Since establishing I am a Cambridge Catley descending from
William
> Catley who was born in Melbourn but left there to go to the East End
and
> marry Caroline Eliza Hayden of Thriplow Cambridge. Caroline
returned
to
> Cambridge after the death of my gt grandfather with her two
youngest
sons
one of who
> was Robert Charles Catley who married my grandmather Martha Covill born
in
> Chesterton.
>
> I have sent this information because I think Mick and I would be
related
as
> we both descend from Cambridge/Herts Catley's. One of my Gt Uncles
emigrated
> to Australia at the end of the first WW and I am trying to trace him as
my
> older Catley cousins saw a couple of them in WW2 and then all trace has
been
> lost.
>
> Lynda Powers
> 07808 956894
> 01582 490918
>
>
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