Page "Aspatria" Paragraph 9

According to one source the origins of the name of Aspatria lie in Old Scandinavian and Celtic.

It translates as " Ash-tree of St Patrick ", and is composed of the elements askr ( Old Scandinavian for " ash-tree ") and the Celtic saint's name.

The order of the elements of the name, with the ash-tree coming before the name of the saint, is particular to Celtic place-names.

The first entry in the parish register referring to the town as Aspatria in preference to the name Aspatrick or Aspatricke appears in 1712.

It appears in the handwriting of the then vicar David Bell.

For the next fifty years the spelling fluctuated until eventually Aspatria became the dominant name.

When Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins passed through the town in 1857 they referred to the name Spatter which is not to dissimilar to ‘ Speatrie ’ the name locals prefer.

This leads us on to the familiar expression ‘ Speatrie Loup Oot ’, which had its genesis in the cry of William Brough, a railway porter, discharging third class passengers after their arrival at Aspatria from the Bolton Loop railway connection.

Second class passengers would detect, " Speatrie change ere for Measyat "; while first class passengers heard a polite invitation, " Aspatriah, change heah for Mealsgate.