Windermere
Posted by Howard on 11 Dec 2008 at 07:57 pm | Tagged as: Places
I was struck when reading Wordsworth’s guide to the lake district, that he refers to Windermere as Winandermer. Where did this extra syllable come from and where did it go?
I retreated to my library and blew the dust off my ancient copy of English Placenames by Prof. Kenneth Cameron. I was disappointed not to find any information on or reference to Windermere. However I did find a Winderton (Warwickshire), Winderwath (Westmorland) and Winder (Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire). The last one was most intriguing since those three counties were the ones which rubbed shoulders with each other at the three shires stone on the summit of the Wrynose pass
Page 77 instructed me that we had here an example of the Scandinavian genitive singular form ar often rendered er in modern spellings. Winder coming from Vinandar “belonging to Vinand”, Winderwath “Vinand’s ford”. The same genitive form also cropping up in Harter Fell “the hart’s fell” Harterbeck “the harts stream”. It seems probable, then that The Early 19th century Winandermere comes form this Scandanavian personal name and was “Vinandar mere” Vinand’s mere. It would complete my small research to find out more about this ancient Scandinavian.
Finally, have you ever considered how strange it is that we call the lake “Lake Windermere” since mere already means lake. I suppose it developed as a means of distinguishing the lake form the town that grew up during the middle of the nineteenth century at the point where the new railway disgorged its passengers- much to Wordsworth’s disgust.
I hasve read your info with interest and thought my family connection might be of interest to you.
My great grandfather surname was Vinand and he came to the UK from France as a young man. He worked at the Old England Hotel at Windermere as a chef, which coincidentally has a restaurant named the Vinand Restaurant.
There is an old photo on the wall and it has may great grandfather dressed in his whites.
We are told that he purchased some silverware for a royal banquet with Bismark and the Kaiser which was never used and packed away as war broke out. We have been told that it was uncovered several years ago with the original receipts containing my great grandfather’s signature. I have not been able to find out any further information about this – can you help?