Beverley

Beverley is a market town in the East Riding of Yorkshire, north of Kingston-upon-Hull, east of Market Weighton and west of Hornsea.

It is best known for Beverley Minster and its racecourse, and also for Beverley Friary and a fine medieval church, St Mary's, reflecting its former status as a wealthy wool-trading town. In the 14th century, Beverley was classed as the eleventh richest town in England.

Beverley was the seat of the Beverley borough in the administrative county of Humberside from 1974 to 1996. It is now the seat of the East Riding of Yorkshire (as it also was before 1974). RAF Leconfield airbase is nearby. There is a Beverley linux users group in the town.

Beverley is also home to the oldest state school in England: Beverley Grammar School (founded 700 AD).

Beverley was built on fines. The local courts used to fine traders that sold goods of incorrect weight or of poor quality, which made the town one of the finest towns to trade in, since buyers knew that they were buying high quality goods. Traders from all over England headed to Beverley to buy and sell goods.

"Beverley"

Beverley is derived from the Anglo-Saxon place-name "Beoferlic," which later became corrupted as "Beverlith," "Beverlea," "Beverlac," and "Beforlac." This name may have the literal meaning of "beaver lake," a reference to the colonies of beavers in the Hull. Isaac Taylor, however, identified Beverley with the Romano-British Petuaria as Beverley and theorized that the original Celtic name of the site, Pedwarllech, became corrupted by the Saxons in order to make the name intelligible to them by the process of folk-etymology. Pedwarllech is said to signify "four boundary stones," "pedwar" meaning "four."

Sources

Isaac Taylor, Names and Their Histories (London: Rivington's, 1898), 68.