ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1179
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1179
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30 Aug 1998
From: Steve Roylance .au>

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! 

You asked for our opinion of <Arrowsreach> as a place name. Here is what we
found.

There are in England two rivers and a habitation called <Arrow>.  One
river-name, recorded as <Arewe> 1256, is from a British river-name, which is
derived through several stages from <ariant> the Welsh word for silver.  The
other, <Aruwe> 1247, is also from a British river-name and this is derived
from 'a running stream' [1].  Please note that none of these names has
anything to do with arrows or archery.  The pronunciation led people to spell
the names like the common word <arrow>.

There is also a place called <Reach>, with examples <Reche> 1086; <Reche>,
<Rache>, <Recher>, <Reche> 1276, from English <reach> "portion of a river". 
However, we found no compound names with this element and the name of a river
[1, 2].

Whilst <Arewereche> would be registerable with the CoA, we must recommend
against using it, as we have not found <-reach> in compound with a river
name.

River names are compounded with other geographical features.  Some of the
documented endings are <-dale>, <-mouth>, <-ford>, <-bridge>, <-ton> and
<-fleet>.  So any of these could be used instead of <-reach>.  These could be
either as a modern English name or in the appropriate 11th to 13th century
form.

Some examples are [1]:-
<Tynedale  - recorded as Tindala in 1158>, 
<Avonmouth - recorded as Avevemue in 1287>, 
<Ousefleet - recorded as Useflete in 1100>, 
<Cambridge - recorded as Gantebrycg in 875 & Cambrugge in 15C>

Compounded names are very common in English place names, mostly starting with
a name (such as a person or feature) and adding a descriptive, such as in the
examples in the preceding paragraphs, however, it is very rare for there to
be an 's' between the name and the descriptive [1].

We suggest that you choose some compound of <Arrow> (or its 13th century
spellings <Arewe> or <Aruwe>) and one of the geographical elements we
discussed above: <Arrowdale>, <Areweflete>, <Aruwebrugge>, etc.  Any of these
compounds would be a fine period English place name.

I hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it
has been unclear or if you have other questions. Primary research and
verification for this letter by Talan Gwynek, Arval d'Espas Nord, and
Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasfryn. 

For the Academy, 

Thorfinn Hrolfsson 
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References 
[1] Ekwall, Eilert, _The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names_,
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1991)

[2] Smith, A.H., _English Place-Name Elements_, v.II (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1956)