ultimate kernel, we seem to obtain the following chief groups:—
(1) Ma(n)cocun-ium (Mam-cun-ium, contraction);
(2) Coacciun-ium (Coac(o)cun-ium);
(3) Mam-uc-ium, Mam-ut-ium, and its contractions;
(4) Man-uc-ium, &c.
Taking the root man first, compare the Welsh place-names: Maen y Campiau, Maen sigl; Maen Twrog, Maen Arthur; Tre vaen, Y maen du, Maen melyn, Pen maen mawr and bach. Coaccium, coac(o)cun, cocun, c.p. coch, pl. cochion=red, as in the Welsh place-names: Moel goch, craig coch, clawdd coch, bryn coch, &c., where the Celtic harsh gutteral ch is softened into the Latinised form with c (k) and ti, as in Mamucium, Manutium (pronounced probably as in much).
The original Brythonic form seems to have been Meini cochion=Redstones, just as we have the Welsh place-name, meini llwydion, meini birion, and the cerig cochion, in Bangor. Hollingworth's (+ 1656) spelling of Main cester appears to point to an old plural spelling (maini, main). We meet the name again in the local name of Red Bank and Red Bank Head, both of which form the continuation of the high, steep, red, rocky banks of the Irk, on the north-east part of Hunt's Bank. We have, in addition, the Great Redstone[1] (1624), and the Great and Little Redstones, "opposite an outcrop of the New Red sandstone towards Kersall Cells and Mill Riding going up the river Irwell."[2]
Man-uc-ium appears to be composed, in its second root, of the word awch (also contained in och-r)=edge; compare also Welsh uchel=high, as in Uwch mynydd; in
