Population 143 (2011) Country England Post town Northallerton Shire county North Yorkshire | OS grid reference SE450959 Sovereign state United Kingdom Local time Wednesday 11:08 PM District Hambleton | |
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Region Yorkshire and the Humber Weather 13°C, Wind S at 21 km/h, 88% Humidity | ||
Theakston is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 143. The village is situated just west of the A1 road, and is about three miles south-east of Bedale.
Map of Theakston, UK
The name "Theakston" is believed to derive from the name of the leading family settling the area during the Anglo-Saxon colonisation of England. The suffix "-ton" is clearly the indication of there having been an "enclosure", "palisade" or "homestead". The derivation is equivalent to "tuin" in Dutch = a garden and of "Zaun" in German = a fence which both derive from the old Germanic root word "tun". The first part "Theaks" has a derivation from the Norse "Að Åke’s". We have lost the letter ð which still exists in Icelandic and is pronounced "th". "Að" became the English word "at". Åke is still a common Scandinavian name pronounced "Ork-e". So we have "Ath Åkes Tun" corrupting, not really very much, to Theakston. The meaning is, therefore, "At Åke's Homestead". So we have a settler called Åke who built a homestead.
The derivation is similar to that of Atherstone farther south near Nuneaton. In that case, the "th" remained while the "k" was dropped. Somewhere it gained an "-e" at the end, possibly to make it sound more "civilised" and less Norse".
Some think that the name may be a corruption of "Thatchton", which in turn describes the roofing material thatch, popular in many towns at that time, but while thatch was common in many areas in the southern part of England, it was not the common roofing material in the surrounding area about Theakston. Then as now the predominant building and roofing material was stone.