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CHAPTER X.
THE PARISH OF BISPHAM.
Biscopham was the appellation bestowed on the
district now called Bispham at and before the era of
William the Conqueror, in whose survey it appears
as embracing within its boundaries eight carucates of
arable land. The original name is simply a compound of the two
Anglo-Saxon words Biscop, a bishop, and Ham, a habitation or
settlement, the signification of the whole being obviously the
'Bishop's town,' or 'residence.' Hence it is clear that some
episcopal source must be looked to as having been the means of
conferring the peculiar title on the place, and fortunately for the
investigator, the annals of history furnish a ready clue to what
otherwise might have proved a question difficult, or perhaps
impossible, of satisfactory solution. In a previous chapter it has
been noted that for long after the reign of Athelstan Amounderness
was held by the See of York, and nothing can be more natural
than to suppose, when regarding that circumstance in conjunction
with the significance of the name under discussion, that the
archbishops of the diocese had some residence on the soil of
Bispham. It is quite possible, however, that there may have been
merely a station of ecclesiastics who collected the rents and
tithes of the Hundred on behalf of the bishopric, acting in fact as
stewards and representatives of the archbishop for the time being,
but in either case it is evident that the name and, consequently,
the town, are of diocesan origin, doubtless associated with the
proprietorship above mentioned. The presence of priests in
residence within the manor of Bispham would necessarily lead to
the establishment there of some chapel or oratory, and the absence
