Summer Trivia

[Kingsmills]

I see that our next fixture is a friendly againt Elgin City at Borough Briggs. Does anyone know why the Borough part of Elgin's ground is spelt the english way ?

[PullMyFinger]

The ground got it's name from the road it is on Borough Briggs Road. Do I win a cigar? :shrug01:

[Kingsmills]

That, however, begs the next obvious question.

[metalgecko]

There is a connection to Richard 1, Hammer of the Scots, who stayed in Elgin on his "North Tour". Elgin became a visit for following Kings who were quite taken with the place so perhaps that may be a reason for the English spelling. 

[Kingsmills]

Interesting thought.

[Scotty]

according to wikipedia .....

the word burgh is derived from Scots language and refers to corporate entities whose legality is peculiar to Scotland. (Scottish law was protected and preserved as distinct from laws of England under the Acts of Union of 1707.) Pronunciation is different from the English word borough, which is a near cognate of the Scots word.

The word has cognates, or near cognates, in other Germanic languages. For example, burg in German, and borg in both Danish and Swedish. The equivalent word is also to be found in Frisian, Dutch, Norwegian, and Icelandic. In southern England, the word took the form bury, as in Canterbury.

The Scots language burgh and the English language borough are derived from the Old English language word burh (whose dative singular and nominative/accusative plural form byrig sometimes underlies modern place-names, and which had dialectal variants including burg; it was also sometimes confused with beorh, beorg, 'mound, hill', on which see Hall 2001, 69-70).

The Old English word was originally used for a fortified town or proto-castle (eg at Dover Castle or Burgh Castle) and was related to the verb beorgan (cf. Dutch and German bergen), meaning "to keep, save, make secure". In German Burg means castle, though so many towns grew up around castles that it almost came to mean city, and is incorporated into many placenames, such as Hamburg and Strasbourg),

A number of other European languages have cognate words which were borrowed from the Germanic languages during the Middle Ages, including brog in Irish, bwr or bwrc, meaning "wall, rampart" in Welsh, bourg in French, borgo in Italian, and burgo in Spanish.

The most obviously derivative words are burgher in English and Bürger in German (both literally citizen, with connotations of middle-class in English and other Germanic languages). Also related are the words bourgeois and belfry (both from the French), and burglar. More distantly, it is related to words meaning hill or mountain in a number of languages (cf. the second element of iceberg).

[Charles Bannerman]

Might "Borough Briggs" be a reference to the town's bridges... ie the site of an ancient bridge or bridges over the River Lossie to which BB is very close?

By the way, metalgecko, the Hammer of the Scots was Edward 1st, of England, late 13th/ early 14th Century and not Richard 1st (Lionheart) who was around in the late 12th and early 13th

[Kingsmills]

Still doesn't explain why it's not Burgh Briggs.

[metalgecko]

CB.

Edward 1.  I know. Why did I say Richard? Call it nightshift blues !!!!!  :029:

[Scotty]

- English connection with Kings

- Olde English origin as a fortified town or castle

- Germanic origins meaning secure place

- 'Briggs' probably derived from 'Bridge' somewhere along the line

All these go together to make a very plausible answer that the word Borough is spelled that way (as opposed to Burgh) because it was named by the English as a securely fortified place where the English Kings went on occasion and the exact location (ie with Briggs on the end) probably had something to do with a bridge to the secure place or over the nearby River Lossie.

Who would have thought that English Kings would have started the trend for caravan holidays at Silver Sands in Lossie :015: :015:

[Alex MacLeod]

The History of Elgin

With its equable climate, fertile soil and strategic position, Moray has played an important part in the story of Scotland from the earliest times. Its principal town, Elgin, was founded on a well-drained ridge with a natural defensive mound and protected on three sides by the River Lossie which was also a source of power and a means of communication. There was probably a castle here as early as the eleventh century and the land hereabouts was a favourite hunting ground of the early monarchs. David I raised Elgin to the status of a Royal Burgh and in 1224 the town received the additional accolade of being chosen as the seat of the Bishop Of Moray.

Despite the unwelcome attentions of various armies and bands of brigands, Elgin grew steadily throughout the medieval period until by the seventeenth century it boasted many fine buildings reflecting the prosperity of its merchants and craftsmen. At the begining of the nineteenth century though, the town had a population of less than 4,000 and was still largely confined to three parallel lines of streets running between the Castle and the precincts of the Cathedral. Then fortunes made abroad financed some of Elgin's finest buildings and stimulated a sense of civic pride, which, aided by the coming of the railway and the general economic growth of Victorian Britain saw the laying out of new streets and the construction of new buildings on a scale previously unparalleled. The most recent development has been into the previously seperate villages of Bishopmill and New Elgin and latterly into marshy area south of the railway line so that the town now has a population of some 20,000.

The Bishopric of Moray was founded in 1107, but it was not until 1224 that the Cathedral was transferred to 'the Church of the Holy Trinity beside Elgin'. In its original form Elgin Cathedral was a simple cruciform building, but after it was damaged by fire in 1270 the choir was doubled in length with aisles added on each side and a Chapter House built opening off the north aisle. In 1390 Alexander Stewart, more familiarly known as the "Wolf of Badenoch', plundered and burned both Forres and Elgin including the Cathedral, which sustained such damage that it was necessary to rebuild the western gable, the arcades of the nave, the central tower and the Chapter House.

Although in the years immediately following the Reformation the Cathedral seems to have remained untouched, it was much too rich a target to resist for long. In 1567 the lead was stripped from the roofs and in 1637 the choir roof collapsed. The rood-screen with its painting of the crucifixion was taken down and destroyed in 1640 and on Easter Sunday, 1711, the great central tower fell destroying the north transept and the main arcades of thre nave.

Thereafter the ruins were used as a quarry and rubbish dump until in 1807 an enclosure wall was built and the process of decline arrested. About 1824 John Shanks was appointed keeper and set about clearing the rubbish which had accumulated over the years, removing, it is said, some "3,000 barrowfuls and laying bare the foundations of the pillars of the nave, the elevations of the altar and the stairs at the western gate".

From this time onward the conservation of the building became the great concern of successive government departments so that the ruins seen today remain one of the finest examples of medieval architecture in Scotland.

Edward I, the "Hammer of the Scots" visited Elgin in 1296 and described it as "a good town".

The layout of the medieval town can still be seen from the top of Ladyhill which is now dominated by the column erected to the 5th Duke of Gordon in 1839.

Elgin's importance as a commercial town, in an area which was "fertile, well watered and with genial climate"; remained and by the early eighteenth century it was a prosperous burgh with many fine buildings. Daniel Defoe described Elgin as "a very agreeable place to live in", a quality which has remained.

Several restored eighteenth century buildings are to be found in the High Street as are the Little Cross of 1733 and the Muckle Cross near the centre of the now pedestrianised High Street.

Between 1820 and 1840 Elgin was transformed, with many fine new buildings identifying it as a city well worth visiting. Dr Grays Hospital, Anderson's Institute, the neo classical St Giles Church built between 1825 and 1828, and the Elgin Museum of 1842 reflect Elgin's status. At the same time the old restrictive gateways or ports to the town were removed with only the Pans Port near Elgin Cathedral now remaining.

It was the coming of the railway in the mid 19th century that had a significant effect on Elgin. The size of the burgh doubled and effective communication links were opened up, thereby further strengthening its commercial and administrative importance.

Elgin today is a city steeped in history, ruined castle on a hill, classical town centre, award winning museum, restored 18th century town houses and wynds, beautiful cathedral with the nearby Bishops House, and the Cooper Park gifted to the town by George Cooper in 1903. Here is Elgin's superb new library, opened in 1996, beside the Cooper Park pond in the old TA Drill Hall, Grant Lodge built as the town house of the Seafield family in 1751 and now housing the Grant Lodge Local Heritage Centre with its archival and local collections on Moray, and at its east end Elgin Cathedral, a must for all visitors. And beyond the Cathedral, Johnstons of Elgin Visitor Centre.

From the above there is nothing that I can see that would hold true as to the reason for the anglified spelling so here's my stab at an excuse. Elgin was indeed a Burgh town. It was surrounded, on three sides by the Lossie. I believe there once was a bridge close to where the Mansion House Hotel sits now. Which is also near to Borough Briggs Road. That road did not exist in earlier times so my assumption is that one of the city fathers of recent times, who was likely to have been of english decent, whilst writing down suggestions for the name of this new road spelt it as he thought it should be spelt.

[Guest donmac298]

Who fecking cares.