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Wigan Album

Billinge

6 Comments

Parsons Slack Billinge
Parsons Slack Billinge
Photo: RON HUNT
Views: 4,725
Item #: 20589
Old post card showing a view of Parsons Slack Billinge.

Comment by: fred foster on 4th May 2012 at 08:57

I have an old Billinge map and on it is Billinge Slack and Billinge Rant can anybody enlighten me about their meanings?

Comment by: Mick on 5th May 2012 at 12:59

Fred - 'slack' comes from the old Norse 'slakki' meaning a shallow valley or hollow.
Unsure about 'rant'.

Comment by: Lindsay Heyes on 5th September 2012 at 23:35

Rant probably means "edge" or "boundary", Old English: rend (cf. modern German rand meaning "side"). Circumstantial evidence: Billinge Rant is by Roby Farm, Roby meaning "farmstead/village at a boundary", Old Scandinavian: ra + by. So... fossil references to a former boundary? I'd be interested if there's any documentary evidence to confirm existence of a boundary there.

Comment by: Old Viking on 2nd March 2013 at 14:38

Back in viking times, a slack (correctly spelled slak) was a communal grazing area. normally, there would be some kind of posts, to which an animal was tethered by a longish rope"Rant" was a boundary or path around an area.

Roby is made up of two norse words. Ro and by. By is a settlement, but the word "ro" means brutal in most cases, although sometimes it can refer to other things

Comment by: Sgt Pepper on 21st April 2013 at 14:11

Billinge is a Norse word, there is a village in southern Sweden called Billinge, although it is pronounced differently.

Comment by: Geoff on 5th January 2014 at 16:55

I have an " address " for my great, great grandfather John Martlew, of Slack, Chapel End, Billinge from the mid 19th. century before he moved his family to St.Helens.

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