Do you know how Swaythling, Southampton, got its "Y"?

Long before people could simply Google questions, readers would often write to the newspaper and call upon the knowledge of others to gain answers - or sometimes open a debate - into a certain subject.

But some things, not even Google can help with - such as how Swathling became Swaythling - and this was a particularly hot topic in the letters pages of the early 1950s.

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Historically, Swathling was a small village near Southampton, but it's now a busy city suburb called Swaythling.

What exactly caused the "Y" to creep into the name has long been a mystery.

Readers regularly wrote in offering all sorts of different explanations.

One said the name resulted from a mistake by a sign writer who added a “Y’’ to Swathling over the doorway of a building called Swathling Hall at the corner of Portswood.

Others contested that theory and said that in the early part of the last century local people’s pronunciation of the area was so bad that it often came out as “Swarlen’’ and so a local lord added the “Y’’ to make sure the name was said properly.

The last indication of the old spelling disappeared 55 years ago with the demolition of an antique shop which stood at the junction of Wide Lane and Mansbridge Road.

Swaythling has always been a gateway area in and out of Southampton and for centuries High Road was frequently filled with convoys of heavily-laden horse-drawn wagons piled high with bales of goods unloaded from the ships which came into the docks from the Mediterranean.

These wagons, en route to Winchester and London, passed carts plodding the other way loaded with wool, from the Hampshire downland sheep, which was exported through Southampton to Europe.

It is believed that the original village clustered around a ford close to where the Fleming Arms pub can be found today.

An 1839 railway guide, celebrating the opening of the London to Southampton line, which was completed in 1840, reads: “Swathling derives some celebrity from a mineral spring which flows in its vicinity and is said to be very efficacious in curing diseases of the eye.’’

The Swaythling railway station has played a key role in many of Southampton's most significant events, particularly during the Second World War when hundreds of troop trains headed to the docks, carrying soldiers headed for the Western Front and later the D-Day beaches of Normandy.

The railway line still crosses the same infamous arch at the bottom of Bassett Green Road which, over the decades, has become the scene of many road accidents as vehicles have hit or become stuck under its brickwork.

Swaythling also figured significantly in the history of aviation. 

Before the outbreak of the First World War, in the very early days of flight, many pilots were reported to have forced landed on local fields and farms.

A number of new and extraordinary aircraft were regularly seen circling over Swaythling when Southampton's first aerodrome was built, including arguably the most famous aircraft of all time - the Spitfire.

Have you heard any other theories as to how or why Swaythling adopted the "Y"? If so, email ian.crump@dailyecho.co.uk .

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