Flass Pits?

[stripeykelly]

Does anyone know what a Flass Pit is? I have encountered one on a mid-19th century map of Barrow in Cumbria, have tried looking up various industrial and mining dictionaries and websites but to no avail, and no one around me has a scoobie. It may or may not be crucial!

Any suggestions? PLEASE

the future's bright; the future's trowel shaped

[gumbo]

Dear stripey,

I suspect that this is a personal name as lots of the pits around there were called after the owners. There are quite a few 'Flass' names around barrow e.g Flasslane or Flass dub.

I googled 'flass names in barrow' and got onto a heraldic crests site (how fun) which also gave the surnames meanings it said:

Flax is an English and Jewish (Ashkenazic) name for the man who sold, grew, or otherwise treated flax that was used for weaving linen in early times, and is derived from the term that carried through from Old English. It's generally an occupational name. Variations include Flaxman and the English forms Flexman, Flexer . Jewish variations include Flaks, Flacks, Flachser, Flachs, Flaxer, Flakser, Flaksman, Fleksman . The German form is Flassmann, Flass . The Dutch version is Vlasman.

This is a bit subjective I know but no-ones gonna press your DBA too hard! Really must do some work, damn procrastination...

G

[m300572]

Try contacting the County Mounty - I'd be interested in this one as well, my atch includes Cumbria although so far i haven't has any flass pits to deal with.

[stripeykelly]

Dear all

Thank you all for your replies, but I maybe now able to put all your minds at rest. Flass comes from 'flasshe' old english for 'brook in marshy ground' and probably has an anglian or norse root. I had the whole of barrow country record office trying to find out for me yesterday. The area I am looking at also has the name Flass, which was given to it by Furness Abbey as one if its granges, so it predates the 15th century. Very exciting stuff. The 'pits' did seem to refer to small ponds on the alignment of a wee burn, which I was able to identify on clearer maps. Oh the joy of research!!

Thanks again, I am sure that you will all be sleeping better in your beds tonight!:face-stir: xx

the future's bright; the future's trowel shaped

[vulpes]

Have you considered the possibility that these pits may have been used for soaking or 'retting' flax and thus played a part in linen production? Just an idea. Am aware of the use of 'Flash' for a pond in parts of Lancashire as well as Cumberland and Westmorland - but this may be another alternative.

[stripeykelly]

I did consider this, but there isn't much evidence for flax production in the area, thanx anyway. more food for thought.

the future's bright; the future's trowel shaped

[m300572]

Thanks for the information. 'Flash' as vulpes points out is used for 'pond' in the south of Lancashire and Cheshire particularly for the water filled depressions caused by subsidence into old mine workings (for coal or salt). Flax was probably fairly widespread as a crop in the past and worked on a small scale for domestic use - the Ribble Valley in lancashire has a number of sites where there is evidence for medieval larger scale flax retting although the industry seems to have declined in the 18th C with a lot of imported flax from Ireland. The conditions for spinning and weaving flax and cotton were similar however and cotton eventually supplanted linen almost totally in Lancashire.