Coniston - Conistone

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There are several places in England with names that start Coniston, e.g. in Cumbria, the East Riding of Yorkshire and the North Riding (Coniston Cold). Only another North Riding village is written with a final '-e': Conistone. All share the root meaning 'the King's manor', or 'royal estate', combining the Old Scandinavian konungr, 'king', with the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) tūn, 'farmstead', 'village'.

The name of the East Riding village was recorded in Domesday Book (1087) as Coningesbi, where the -bi is the Old Scandinavian element '-by' meaning 'village'. This may serve to illustrate the influence of the Vikings' langage on northern dialects of English: see further Old Norse (history). The suffix may be seen in local place-names such as 'Anlaby', 'Grimsby', 'Willerby', 'Sewerby', etc.
  • The largest and best known of the Coniston[e] villages is that in Cumbria, which sits to the west of Coniston Water, one of the largest lakes in the Lake District. It has been famous as the home of the art critic and writer John Ruskin; as a home for the setting of water-speed records (the late Donald Campbell was killed in his attempt in the jet-propelled Bluebird 7 to exceed 300 miles per hour in 1966); and as one of the sources of the fictional lake in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series of novels for young readers. He also portrayed the nearby mountain the 'Old Man of Coniston' (or Coniston Old Man) as 'Kanchenjunga' in these books