Pol, Pow, Pool, Pwll - Pwll Dwr, Powter, Potter...

Cartherit or Cartheril, an old name for Castlerigg near Keswick (with a side trip to Arthuret)

Cartherit, appears to be an older name for Castlerigg NY277227. It appears on Ogilby's map of 1675.  It appears as Cartheril on Bowen & Kitchen's map of 1760.  Possibly both from an older map? I am tempted to see Cumbric caer here, where caer equates to the  Castle-  in Castlerigg. The Low Nest Farm website discusses the location of Cartherit. It says that the Castle refers to the Castlerigg Stone Circle or the Roman fort that was adjacent to it. The Low Nest farm with local knowledge say later maps change Cartherit to Brow Top, i.e. the top of Nest Brow. So, Caertherit might have been the Cumbric name for the settlement enear Castlerigg stone circle (and Roman fort ruins). The text accompanying Ogilby's map says "Then descending pass thro' Cartherit-V (i.e. village), and at 29'4 (miles from Kendal) to Keswick…"

 -therit is more difficult to interpret than caer. Firstly consider Welsh terydd, "ardent, furious" (see James, 2016). This has been proposed as the second element of Arthuret NY378674. Arthuret is supposed to be the site of the Battle of Armterid where Gwenddolau fought Peredur and Gwrgi and Rhydderch Hael of Strathclyde in 573. This has been interpreted as Arf + Terydd "swift or terrible weapon/arms". James pefers ardd "height" + terydd, which makes more sense as the church stands on a bluff above the River Esk. I find it difficult to see terydd in a place name, unless perhaps a river name, "ardent, furious". The Esk is the Celtic name, Terydd, could have been the local name for that stretch of the river. 

 Caer + terydd would give Caerderydd not *Caerdderydd. The -t could be explained because Old English had no /-ð/ and substituted /-d/ cf. Minehead and Long Mynd, both from mynydd. The final /-d/ would be devoiced as normal to /-t/ in Scots/Cumberland English. But I am struggling to find an element that fits this in Welsh, Cornish or Breton.
 
However, if, Carithet refers to the stone circle or the Roman ruins, we would expect the second element to elaborate on it. Another version of the name is Catheril 1760. This might allow us to see the name as  Caerddryll where dryll has two meanings - "fragment" or "spear, javelin" (in Modern Welsh it means gun).  The Melville Richards archive gives various Welsh place-names with dryll, e.g Cae Dryll y Maen Llwyd near Llanwyddan, Byr Ddrylliau near Arllechwedd, Beudy Drylliau - all in Caernarfonshire, Allt y Dryll near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire. In most of these the meaning seems to be "fragment", apart from the last where it could well be "spear".  So Caerddryll would mean Fort of the Spear, which is equivalent to Dunpelder in East Lothian and similar to Drumpellier in Lanarkshire.

 Cartheril - Caer Ddryll - "Fort of the Spear", or "Fort in Bits."

 Phonologically /kairðrɨɬ  > English karðəril ~ karθəril/ with the name later replaced by English Castlerigg.

River Cocker NY 158 258 and Cogra Moss NY 095 195

River Cocker NY 158 258  Koker c. 1170, Kok' 1195, Coker  13015

PNCu p9 suggests this is a Celtic name from British *cucrā'.  Ekwall in Place-names of Lancashire notes the same river name as the Cocker in Lancashire, and in Cockerton in Durham (Ekwall, 1922). Ekwall cites Stoke's derivation of the Irish cúar from Celtic *kukrā. The terminal - ā would lower the initial u to o (Jackson, 1953: 573). The meaning would be twisting, winding. In Welsh there is the phrase cogr-droi (GPC), which is also found in mutated form as gogr-droi. The GPC relates to the word to gogr "sieve, strainer", but I think that there was probably an adjective cogr meanining "twisting" from with the Cumbrian Cocker and the others derive.

Related I think is -

Cogra Moss NY 095 195 . I can't find a discussion of this in PNCu. The earliest form of the name is Cogra Moss 1867, but Whaley says the name is obscure (Whaley, 2006). I think this contains a Cumbric name for the Rakegill Beck, namely Cogr with the Norse á "river" added later. The form cogr with /g/ rather than /k/ shows that it was borrowed from Cumbric speakers after the development of /-g-/ in English at the end of the Old English period, the end of the 11th Century. Cocker is borrowed earlier, possibly towards the beginning of Northumbrian control in the 7th Century.

Clockhoe, Aspatria NY1442

Clockhoe, a lost field name in Aspatria Parish  NY1442. The last element seems to be Old English hōh "a spur of land" or possibly Old Norse haug(r) 'hill, mound'. The First element seems to be Cumbric clog  Welsh clog, "rock, cliff, precipice" and Cornish clog "steep rock" and Irish cloch "stone".  I can't think of, or find a steep prominent stone face in the Aspatria area.

Alan James discusses this element, though not this particular name and he gives Cockleroy Hill near Torphichen and Drumclog in Lanarkshire as examples

Cloffocks NX995290

Cloffocks NX995290 Fyt Cloffhow n.d. , Two Cloffocks 1660, High Cloffock, Middle and Low Cloffocks 1749

PNCu p361 derives this from Old English clōh "a deep valley or ravine" and hōh " a spur" and they cite Ekwall's comparison of  it with Clougha in Lancashire.  The 1867 OS map shows an area of marsh and creeks adjoining the river Derwent, hence the  name fyt in the undated form is from Old Norse fit "a meadow," usually by a river.

I think the second element is unlikely to be hōh because that wouldn't give /- ək/ but rather /- ə/ < / əx/  as in Clougha or Moota.  I think it is rather the Brittonic diminutive -og which was borrowed into English to create such words as bullock and paddock (earlier parrock, though parrock as probably purely Brittonic and a dimunitive from Welsh pawr, Cumbric por- "grazing", as Andrew Breeze has suggested.

The topography doesn't really suggest a ravine either

CLOFFOCK, a liberty (extra-parochial) adjoining

the parish of Workington, in ALLERDALE ward above

Derwent, county of CUMBERLAND, containing 15 inhabitants.

This is a large common, lying on the north

side of the town of Workington, and is completely surrounded

by the river Derwent and a small stream.

Races are held annually upon it; and at the west end

are a quay and a patent slip. A portion of the ground

is called Chapel Flat, whence it is thought to have

been the site or property of a religious house.

Source: http://www.melocki.org.uk/lewis/England/Vol1/e13393.txt

Strange that it was extra-parochial.  Cumbria County Council's archaeological survey here says there was medieval settlement here and remains on a 1589 map. However, most of the buildings were demolished after 1954. 

Chalk Beck NY331454

Chalk Beck  NY331454 Shauk c. 1060, Schauk 1285. Schauke 1381, Shawke 1578, Tyauk 1289, Chawke al. Shawke 1578. Names with -l- begin in 1619. The l is a hypercorrection, such as Falkirk for the correct Fawkirk, after the vocalisation of l after a back vowel in the 16th Century.

 Ekwall (Ekwall, 1960) suggests this is from  a root *scawen, compare Welsh ysgawen "elder tree", presumably in an adjectival form ysgawog "abounding in elders". In Cornish *skewyek and Breton skaveg (Padel, 1985). Padel mentions the Cornish place-name Skewjack SW365245 , earlier Skewyek. Deshayes gives an example of the Breton name Squiviec in Mûr-de-Bretagne

 Chalk Beck runs from Faulds Brow through Chalkplains, Chalkbridge, Chalkside, past Chalk Lodge then to Chalkfoot near Cumdivock before running into the River Wampool.  There is no chalk in the area. The area has a number of Cumbric names, though these may date from the 10th Century and Chalk Beck could predate the Northumbrian occupation in the 7th Century.

 The name clearly begins with a palatalised sibilant /t͡ʃ-/ though it may have been /ʃ- at one time from the earlier spellings. Ekwall's suggestions relies on the fact that earlier Anglo-Saxon  /k/ before a front vowel was palatalised and assibilated, e.g. Church, cf Norse Kirkja, German Kirche, Dutch Kerk. It is noted by Minkova (Minkova, 2013:87) that the process of palatalisation happened throughout the Old English period and was complete by the end of that period (c. 1100). She notes that the north was conservative and palatalisation was resisted there, hence the names in Kirk- rather than church, and dialect words such as kist for chest and sark for shirt. This resistance usually put down to Norse influence but as Laker points out, the Britons had no palatal consonants either and he finds evidence of resistance to palatalisation in Devon near the Cornish border where there was no Norse influence (Laker, 2010).

 Whether from Brittonic influence or Norse, or the one reinforcing the other, in Cumberland and Scotland palatalisation does not usually happen. It does happen in Northumberland however, which was not occupied by the Norse.  So, the palatalisation at the beginning of Chalk beck is unsual and unexpected.

 I had wondered whether it was identical with the Savick Brook, Savoch c. 1200, Safok 1268, which Ekwall considers a British river name (Ekwall, 1960). We would then need to explain the palatalisation of the s- to /ʃ-/ and the vocalisation of /-v-/.   Initial British s- usually becomes h- as in Hafren from British Sabrina, in English Severn.

 As for this root *√sab- , Rivet and Smith discuss that it appears in Savernake in Wiltshire and a river near Cork, in Old Irish, Sabrann and on the Continent, Sambre in Belgium Sevre and Sevres in France and a Gaulish graffito Ad Sabros.  They wonder whether *√sab is a pre Indo-European river name of unknown meaning.
 

Despite the unusual palatalisation, on balace, Chalk Beck may well be Cumbric Sgawog - "abounding in elders."

Camerton, (NY035305

Camerton, (NY035305)Workington Camberton 1174. Armstrong et al discuss Ifor William's suggestion that it contain cymer "confluence",  but there isn't one there.

 James (2016) considers it may containr cymer  or Cymry but is uncertain because of the forms consistently showing Cam-. He doesn't think it is. Cumbri - so not the farm of the Cumbrians. There is a Camerton in East Yorkshire and another in Somerset.  The Cumbrian one could represent Cam + bre  which would reduce to Cammer in local dialect. This would mean "crooked hill (brow or brae)" and suits the topography with English -ton farm added later.

 I am not wholly disuaded that Camerton is not *Cumberton - Cumbrian's Farm, because of the alternation between Cambria and Cumbria, both from Cömbri "Cymry, Cumbrians, Welsh". In the life of St Kentigern by Jocelin, they talk of Cumbria as Cambria. So it might still be "ton" of the Cumbrians and relate to 10th or 11th Century settlement.

 However, Cambre fits and this would seem to be an earlier name, perhaps dating from the Northumbrian occupation.
 

There is Cammerlaws NT655505 (with English hlaw "hill") by a bend in the river Blackadder.  

 The other option is cambus - a bend in a river. This fits. It comes from Celtic *camb- "bent" and in Southern Scotland as Cambus, it is common, always at a river loop. Camerton Church is right by a half loop in the River Derwent, so this meaning is attractive. but the Camber- is difficult to explain. There is Camberley, in Surrey, but that's late and Camberwell in London - by a bend in the Thames which Ekwall, to my mind unconvincingly, derives from Cranmere or Cranburna "Crane Lake" or "Crane Stream." Then there is Camber in East Sussex. Some of the Scottish Cambus names are by the sea. I wonder whether Camber is from a British Camb "crooked" + ber .  We see aber meaning "river mouth" literally "Flow At" and cymer "confluence, flow together" so camb + ber = "crooked flow" is possible.