G & Y,

You will, no doubt, recall:

"HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE

The ancient market town of Evesham can trace its existence back to the
eight century when Evesham Abbey was founded on the spot where
the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared to a humble swineherd
call Eoves while he was searching for a stray pig in the area called
'Lomme'.  Eoves reported his experience to Ecgwin the third Bishop of
Worcester for whom he worked who came to the spot and also saw the
vision. Ecgwin founded the Abbey in 709 and became the first Abbot.
The area became known as Eoveshomme (later Evesham).  The town
grew around the Abbey which in 1540 when it was dissolved by Henry
VIII was estimated to be the 3rd largest and most powerful Abbey in
England."

Well, something was niggling in my mind about this "Eoves" fellow.
Do you remember what the Belgian Ministry of Defence said about
the canton of Evere just outside Brussells? To remind you it
said that the name could mean "wild boar" (pl). Not an unreasonable
thought when you consider that there are still a lot of these beasties
in Belgium. Making a minor mental etymological leap I thought
that possibly the name Eoves was nothing more or less than a
job description rather than an affectionate first name given
to a swineherd.

In my collection of books I have a "Guide to Old English". To my
pleasure I found that "eofor" means a boar or figure of a boar.
I don't profess too much expertise in this area but it must be
pretty obvious (with English being basically a Germanic language)
that "Evere" and "eofer" are coming from the same direction.

What I believe, therefore, is that "Eoves" really meant "pig man",
"boar man", "swineherd" or something similar.

When you look at the other possible sources of the Eaves/Eves name
(efes = edge etc),I think one might be drawn to the conclusion that these
different sources have, over numerous generations, merged and become
the name we have now.

Any comments before I publish?!!!

Pete
--
Peter W. Eaves
IP9 2NF UK
tel/fax +44 (0)70 440 12358

Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 19:01:27 +0100 (BST)
From: Peter Eaves <Peter@evere.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Our dear old swineherd of Evesham
To: gfwe <gfwe@email.msn.com>
Cc: "Yvonne Morrow," <morrow@powerup.com.au>

Peter wrote earlier on the 5th May:

You will, no doubt, recall:

"HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE

The ancient market town of Evesham can trace its existence back to the
eight century when Evesham Abbey was founded on the spot where
the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared to a humble swineherd
call Eoves..."

Well, something was niggling in my mind about this "Eoves" fellow.
Do you remember what the Belgian Ministry of Defence said about
the canton of Evere just outside Brussels? To remind you it
said that the name could mean "wild boar" (pl)...

Gordie commented:

I did enough research on this that it became glued into the memory banks

Well, That is not a minor etymological leap and is cause for
considerable subjective thought. What the Belgian Ministry of Defence
said was merely his off the cuff, so as to speak, explananation
to a curious writer of what the name of the Canton Evere
may ??????????have mean't "Wild Boar". He may have been
merely recanting what the general populace referred to Evere as,
because it had a large number of Boars in the area. Not with
a reference to the actual name or source of the name of that canton
or in fact of any canton.

Peter - responding to Gordie's comments replied:

You've got to remember that the name "Everard" or "Everhart" means
"boar hard" so I think the Belgian Ministry's observations were
rather more than "off-the-cuff" remarks.

Gordie making further comments, wrote:

With respect to the 'eoves', because of the uncertainty shown in
the above I would believe that the Bishop would have in all good
faith never named a town eoveshomme if the translation were to
mean 'Pig Town' . He would have appropiately called it cedrichomme
maryhomme, virginhome or whatever, especially in view of his
claiming to have seen the miraculous vision Note: That as a
marketing tool to arouse the population and Royalty of what he had
observed ,to make a place in history for himself, he would have certainly
chosen a more pious or self serving name.

Peter (not to be put down easily) came back with:

What's wrong with a boar or a pig? A boar is intelligent, brave, persistant
and patient (as indeed is a pig). When we are looking for transplant material
who do we look to? Our old friend the pig, because he is so close to us in make
up! Your view of our porcine friends should not be coloured by modern
preconceptions of what are worthwhile qualities. I have met many a human being
that fails the "intelligent, brave, persistant and patient" test.

Gordie making yet more comments, continued:

So I stay with my thought
that the name did exist, was not fabricated by the Bishop

Peter (coming out of his corner fighting) offered:

He didn't fabricate the name "swineherd" it was just language. Maybe old
Eoves had a real cuddly OE first name like Edmund. Who knows? I can't
imagine Mrs Eoves just calling her hubby "boar" (even if he may have been
a bit of a bore..."Not that old Virgin Mary story again, Eoves; why don't
you tell them the one about the fish friar and the chip monk instead?..."
I think that when Mrs Eoves snuggled up to Mr Eoves in bed she said something
like: "Come here, Eddie, you cuddly old wild boar you!"

Gordie then conjectured:

and to stretch
the thought, it could be associated with Eafa/Easa considering the
vagarities of the phonetics and spelling of names in that time frame.

Peter, very naughtily threw in:

I mustn't say: "and pigs might fly" must I...No I won't...Oh dear...

Well actually you ought to look at the OE name for York, it's
Eoforwicceaster which looks to me to mean "boar camp". ("ceaster" being
an OE adaption of the Latin "castra")

Peter had said:

In my collection of books I have a "Guide to Old English". To my
pleasure I found that "eofor" means a boar or figure of a boar.
I don't profess too much expertise in this area but it must be
pretty obvious (with English being basically a Germanic language)
that "Evere" and "eofer" are coming from the same direction.

Gordie made comment:

I refer to the foregoing thoughts of mine

Peter had also said:

What I believe, therefore, is that "Eoves" really meant "pig man",
"boar man", "swineherd" or something similar.

Sorry good buddy but I just cannot vote 'Aye ' on that

Peter questioned:

Well, what would your translation of "Eoves" be? "He who nurtures
supplies of red meat with a superabundance of saturated fats" perhaps?

--
Peter W. Eaves
IP9 2NF UK
tel/fax +44 (0)70 440 12358

Footnote

Since this was written I have discovered that the OE word Eofer can mean
either wild boar or brave warrior. Wild boar emblems were often found
on helmets (eg Sutton Hoo in Suffolk UK). It seems the boar was much
admired for its virtues of toughness and determination. Even earlier
examples of this exist in history (eg Roman). The BBC has produced a
most interesting radio programme on the subject. I believe we can look
to "eofer" as being one possible root of our name.