Wyles Surname: A Tale of Two Rivers
Welland and Willow Brook - 921 or 1076?
By Adrian Chan-Wyles PhD
Around 2009, my mother – Diane Wyles (the chief archivist of this project) - suggested to me that the ‘Wyles’ surname might have its origins in the name of a local river flowing near to Duddington. This was an interesting suggestion because when we arrived in Duddington on the first of our many field trips from our home in South London (in 2008), we discovered that a river runs through Duddington. We soon realized that there are two bodies of water associated with Duddington – the local River Welland and the nearby River Nene. I focused much of my early investigation upon the Welland, but this changed when I realized that a tributary of the River Nene is also known as the ‘Willow Brook’ today, and historically as the ‘Wilebroc’, or the ‘Wylebroc’. I relay here, the two theories we have formulated as to why it is that we think our surname originated from one of these two rivers, with an outside chance that both landmarks spawned a similar sounding name that became indistinguishable over-time.
Duddington has the River Welland (also known as ‘Weolud’ in the Anglo-Saxon Chronical of 921) flowing from within its geographical boundaries to its northeast, and the River Nene (sometimes written ‘Nyn’ in older texts), flowing to its south. Whereas the River Welland passes through Duddington (on its way to The Wash in Lincolnshire), the River Nene traverses southwest to northeast through Northamptonshire, and only flows as close as Kings Cliffe (which lies 4.7 miles south of Duddington). The River Nene flows 100 miles southwest to northeast from Arbury Hill (Northamptonshire) to The Wash (in Lincolnshire). However, the part of this river which flows northeast from just north of Corby to Fotheringhay (via Deene, Bulwick, Blatherwycke, King's Cliffe and Woodnewton before rejoining the River Nene proper), is also known as the ‘Willow Brook’ (mentioned in the Geld Roll of 1076 and the Domesday Book of 1086 as ‘Wilebroc’) and which flows for about 20 miles).
Duddington has the River Welland (also known as ‘Weolud’ in the Anglo-Saxon Chronical of 921) flowing from within its geographical boundaries to its northeast, and the River Nene (sometimes written ‘Nyn’ in older texts), flowing to its south. Whereas the River Welland passes through Duddington (on its way to The Wash in Lincolnshire), the River Nene traverses southwest to northeast through Northamptonshire, and only flows as close as Kings Cliffe (which lies 4.7 miles south of Duddington). The River Nene flows 100 miles southwest to northeast from Arbury Hill (Northamptonshire) to The Wash (in Lincolnshire). However, the part of this river which flows northeast from just north of Corby to Fotheringhay (via Deene, Bulwick, Blatherwycke, King's Cliffe and Woodnewton before rejoining the River Nene proper), is also known as the ‘Willow Brook’ (mentioned in the Geld Roll of 1076 and the Domesday Book of 1086 as ‘Wilebroc’) and which flows for about 20 miles).
Willow Brook (‘Wilebroc’, ‘Wylebroke’ ‘Willybrook’) Section of River Nene
The Wyles surname has been linked to Viking settlements in the UK, and the Willow Brook has upon its banks a number of places that trace their origins to Danish invaders. Corby – with its population of 60,000 has the fastest growing population not only in Northamptonshire, but also the entirety of England. Corby was founded by Vikings in the 8th century and originally named ‘Kori's by’ or ‘Kori’s Settlement’. Corby’s population grew from 750 in 1881, to 4,000 in 1891 with the early development of a modern interest in iron and steel in the area. This population continued to grow as workers and their families settled from all over the country in search of regular employment. Stewart & Lloyds was a Scottish iron and steel company founded in 1903. In 1932 this company left Scotland and relocated to Corby. As a result, a large number of Scottish people settled in the area to work in the iron and steel industry. The steel works closed in Corby in 1980. Viking settlement appears to have been extensive in the Willow Brook area, continuing from Corby through Bulwick and on to Blatherwycke, etc. ‘Wilebroc’ or ‘Wylebroke’ could have been shortened to ‘Wile’ or ‘Wyle’ to denote a person (or particular group of people) who lived on the banks of the River Nene (I.e. ‘Willow Brook’). This could have been styled later as ‘De La Wile’ or ‘De La Wyle’ - denoting an individual who live near the Willow Brook – and later still, shortened to the plural ‘Wiles’ and ‘Wyles’, referring to an individual who belonged to the family (or group of families) which lived on the banks of the ’Wilebroc’, etc. As ‘Wilebroc’ is first mentioned in extant records no earlier than 1076 (in the Geld Rolls), it can be stated that the ‘Wiles’ or ‘Wyles’ surname as used in the Duddington area, dates from this time, with the caveat that its first apparent use in a written document does not necessarily mean that this is the date of its first inception (as it could have been in use decades before being written down). I would suggest (until proven otherwise) that this is the strongest theory to date for the origination of the ‘Wyles’ surname in the Duddington area.
The River Welland rises in the Hothorpe Hills, (at Sibbertoft) in Northamptonshire (30.5 miles southwest of Duddington), and flows northeast to Market Harborough, Stamford and Spalding, before reaching The Wash. Duddington sits of the east-bank of the River Welland, with the body of water clearly visible from nearly every part of the village. The history (and development) of Duddington has been intimately linked with the River Welland, which was used for transporting people, animals and goods by boat for many centuries. On occasion the river has flooded, and on rare occasions tragedies have occurred with the odd drowning. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 921 records the River Welland as ‘Weolud’. This is an ancient name of uncertain origin – perhaps even pre-Celtic. In Latin text ‘Weolud’ is written ‘Uueeland’, and on occasion written elsewhere as ‘Wyland’ (due to an Anglo-Saxon influence of substituting the ‘eo’ for a ‘y’). This ‘Duddington-centric’ theory suggests that the surname ‘Wyles’ (and not ‘Wiles’) derived prior to the Norman Conquest and is only applicable to a relevant group of people living by the Welland, eventually spreading outward into the surrounding area (where much later a ‘Wiles’ variant was developed). This would suggest that the ‘Wyles’ surname dates back to at least 921 in the Duddington area, but that its development contradicts that of the discerned evolution of the English language which saw an ‘i’ replaced often (but not always) by a ‘y’ in the spelling of certain words following the first century or two after the Norman Conquest of 1066. This is the least strong of my two theories, but it is one of which the details are worth considering. Part of the problem is a lack of evidence. Of course, its primary strength is that the River Welland runs right through Duddington within meters of my deceased relatives who lie in the graveyard of St Mary’s Church. It is a body of water that everyone born in Duddington from the very beginning would have known well.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_Brook_(River_Nene)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Nene
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Welland
https://www.northamptonshireheritage.co.uk/learn/work-trades-and-industries/Pages/the-corby-steel-industry.aspx
http://bosworth.ff.cuni.cz/finder/1/guma?page=3000
http://www.bosworthtoller.com/034991