Flowith

In the English counties now known as East and North Yorkshire are two tiny hamlets both called Flawith. The one to the north west of the city of York whose popluation in 1930 was fifty seven, but is now said in 1995 to be even smaller, is the home of the surname. This surname which is recorded in such varied spellings as Flawith, Flawyth, Flawythe, Flawithe, Floweth and Flowith, the latter two being specifically recorded in what is now South Yorkshire, seems to be totally extinct in the York area, but this was not the case at the end of the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth. The village name is Scandanavian in origin, the whole area being a Danish kingdom in the 10th century and derives from the words 'Flago-Vao'. These translate literally as 'the female troll that lived by the ford' (!!), this being apparently a reference to a wicked witch. Eitherway this makes this surname one of the most interesting of all British surnames. Today the hamlet is just a short stretch of mainly farm cottages, with no longer either a ford or a witch, although there is a nasty hump to catch speeding motorists. Early examples of the name recording come from the village of Crayke which stands on a hill six miles to the east, and these include John Flawithe, a witness there on July 7th 1585, Richard Flawith of nearrby Easingwold, on February 20th 1614, and in Normanton, South Yorkshire, Mary Floweth, who was christened there on February 5th 1702.