Fallowfield

This name is of English locational origin either from a place in Lancashire called Fallowfield or from Fallowfield in Northumberland. The latter was first recorded as Faloufeld in 1296 and as Falyghfeld in the 1355 Patent Rolls of Northumberland. The former appeared as Fallufeld in 1317 and as Falofeld in "Place names of Lancashire", dated 1417. Both places are so called either from the Old English pre 7th Century adjective "fealu", meaning "fallow" or "yellowis" i.e. a piece of ploughed ground left uncropped for a year or more, or from the Old English "fealg" meaning "newly cultivated land", plus "feld", open country, or land free from wood. The surname appears on record at the beginning of the 15th Century, (see below). One, Christopher Falofelde, Principal of Edmund Hall, was entered in "The Oxford University Register" in 1505. On October 24th 1665, George Fallowfield and Elizabeth Brookes were married in Deane by Bolton, Lancashire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Ffalowefeld, which was dated 1406 - "The Close Rolls of Lancashire", during the reign of King Henry 1V, Henry of Bolingbroke, 1399 - 1413. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.