Origin in The East Midlands
The surname Astle first originated in Mercia, England. In the East Midlands, the name was derived from the Danish name Asketil which in turn derives from the Old Norse words áss meaning a god, and ketil meaning cauldron or kettle. References to the Viking 'Asketil' have been found in 12th century surveys by the Monks of Burton Abbey. They record how in 874, King Asketil and three other kings sacked Repton, then the capital of Mercia, after sailing up the River Trent. (This was during the campaign of King Ceolwulf II and the Great Heathen Army to overthrow King Burgred.) The four kings were allocated lands in a partitioned Mercia corresponding to the modern shires of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby and Leicester. To this day, the largest grouping of Astle families is still concentrated in a relatively small area of South Derbyshire and East Staffordshire, close to the River Trent.
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Famous quotes containing the words origin, east and/or midlands:
“Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their origin is pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil. They give us, now and then, some of those luxurious sterile emotions that have a certain charm for the weak.... They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“At length, having come up fifty rods off, he uttered one of those prolonged howls, as if calling on the god of loons to aid him, and immediately there came a wind from the east and rippled the surface, and filled the whole air with misty rain, and I was impressed as if it were the prayer of the loon answered, and his god was angry with me; and so I left him disappearing far away on the tumultuous surface.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Sunday night meant, in the dark, wintry, rainy Midlands ... anywhere where two creatures might stand and squeeze together and spoon.... Spooning was a fine art, whereas kissing and cuddling are calf-processes.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)