There are 7 significant rivers in the North East of England that run into the sea, the Tweed, Coquet, Wansbeck, Blyth, Tyne, Wear and Tees. I have given them the definition of significant though nationally, only the Tweed, Tyne and Tees make the map of major rivers on Wikipedia. There are many other brooks, streams and burns that flow into the sea but it is hard to define when one stops being one and becomes the other.
For arguments sake then I have named the 7 significant rivers. At the mouth of each of these rivers there is a town, Tweedmouth, Amble, Ashington, Tynemouth, Sunderland and Middlesbrough. Then there is Blyth. There is a pattern here. All of the rivers have a town that is either named after the mouth of the river or something completely different. And then there is Blyth.
Blyth town and river are obviously named after each other yet it seems they are the only town and river in the region that have the same name. Not Blythmouth but Blyth. What then happened to Blythmouth?
Wikipedia again: The place-name Blyth is first attested in 1130 as Blida, and takes its name from the river Blyth. The river’s name comes from the Old English adjective blīðe meaning ‘gentle’ or ‘merry’. The town of Blyth is referred to as Blithmuth in 1236 and Blithemuth in 1250. Had this name persisted, the town would today be referred to as “Blythmouth”, on the analogy of Tynemouth to the south.
Or perhaps it could be referred to as Gentlemouth or, better still, Merrymouth. Not wishing to cast any aspersions but I suspect that name refers to the flow rather than its folk.
As always, this got me thinking. Are there any towns in England at the mouth, named after the river, that do not have a town at the mouth called (the river) mouth? I have not been able to think of a way to search for the answer on the Internet but have looked at as many rivers as I can. So far the answer is no, there aren’t any. I also can’t find any explanation as to why the ‘mouth’ was dropped at Blyth. My suspicion is it is something to do with the double digraph (th) sound, though I doubt I will ever know. My guess then is as good as any as I cannot yet find any rivers and towns with the double digraph.
It’s an interesting riddle yet, as it happens, there are no rivers named Riddle though there is a Ridlees Burn, which coincidently runs into the Coquet.
This is a riddle I will think about every time I cross the river.