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Burnham Market is a town on the north coast of Norfolk, England a few miles west of Cromer.
A medieval verse speaks of London York and Coventry and the Seven Burnhams by the sea. The Domesday Book of 1086 mentions seven Burnhams within a radius of two miles. There are:
Grid Ref TF … | |
Template:Getamap | Burnham Market which includes (Template:Getamap) Burnham Westgate, Burnham Sutton and Burnham Ulph (named after Ulph a Danish chieftain, brother of King Canute) |
Template:Getamap | Burnham Deepdale |
Template:Getamap | Burnham Norton |
Template:Getamap | Burnham Overy Staithe |
Template:Getamap | Burnham Overy Town |
Template:Getamap | Burnham Thorpe |
The count of seven may arise from including one of the "suburbs" of Burnham Market or may simply be poetic licence.
The name Burnham derives from amber and indicates that the town was a centre for the amber trade - see Amber in British place names. The towns are located at the sea near a large natural bay named Brancaster Bay and the Scolt Head Island National Nature Reserve.
External links
- Map sources for RHaworth/sb2
- norfolkcoast.co.uk on Burnham Market
br
Brancaster is a village on the north coast of Norfolk, England. It is almost contiguous with Burnham Deepdale and about 5 km west of Burnham Market. It is located at the sea near Brancaster Bay and the Scolt Head Island National Nature Reserve.
It is suggested that the "Bran" in its name derives from brandstein the German for amber and indicates that amber was found here - see Amber in British place names. Certainly a petified forest may be seen on the shore near here at low tide. There was a Roman settlement here named Branodunum. The harbour may have been used for both exporting British amber and importing Baltic amber.
External links
- Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley which mentions the petrified forest
- Map sources for RHaworth/sb2
AinBP
Burnham Market is an ancient settlement for amber trade.
Amber (brandstein in German, the "burning" stone or "burnstone") is found at the northern east coast of Norfolk near the town of Cromer. At a small distance west of Cromer a number of towns with the name of Burnham may be located. The Domesday Book from 1086 even mentions seven settlements Burnham on sea within a radius of two miles, but some of them have been swallowed by the North Sea, leaving today:
- Burnham Thorpe,
- Burnham Overy,
- Burnham Norton,
- Burnham Deepdale, und
- Burnham Market.
The towns are located at the sea near a large natural bay named Brancaster Bay. Burnham Thorpe is famous as the birthplace of admiral Nelson, but most of all these locations must have been marketplaces for “burn”-stones and the inhabitants once were earning money by trading amber.
Burnham Market even carries a market-attribute in its name.
Brancaster also carries another burning-sign in its name and these names indicated a link to amber trading. Brancaster named Branodunium also has been an important settlement at the time of Roman occupation. The period of time of the amber findings in Cromer is said to be 1600 – 600 before Christ and for this reason the names must be at least 2600 years old. The Brancaster harbour may have been in use for both exporting the Cromer or other British findings and importing Baltic amber.
The corresponding sea-port at the mainland may have been Antwerpen in Belgium, which is named "Amberes" in Spanish language, indicating amber as an important trading good at the time of foundation.
In a German periodical Karl Jülicher describes at least 4 locations of amber finds in Britain, all situated at the east coast of Britain and indicated at or at least nearest to the following locations:
- Cromer in Norfolk near the "seven" Burnham towns
- The Humber mouth to the North Sea
- Sunderland or Tynemouth at the southern border of Northumberland
- Burnmouth or Berwick-upon-Tweed at the northern border of Northumberland
These indications suggest reading Burnham Market as an amber trading settlement, Amber for Umber/Humber, understanding the Humber as the Amber-river and Northumberland as the northern amber-area.
External links
- Joannes Richter on amber (big PDF)
up
I have moved Burnham Market more or less unchanged.
- I have no strong feelings about the new title Amber in British place names - feel free to move it.
- I do have a feeling the article verges into the area of original research. A few references and external links (other than to your own PDF) would reduce the risk of it being denounced as original research.
- You need to add category/ies to the article and create links to it from other articles such as Cromer and Humber.
Also:
- I do not believe any Burnhams have disappeared under the waves - have you any evidence?
- Do you think that Burnham in a place name always indicates amber?