''Earsh'' (noun) () was used in South and West

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

to describe a stubble field in which a grain crop — wheat, barley or rye — had been harvested, leaving short stubble or short stalks. The field is prepared for seeding by ploughing the stubble into the ground, or

burning Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combust ...

. As the earsh decomposes, nutrients including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are released back into the soil. It is frequently pronounced "ash". It is written also as arrish, arish, eddish or ersh.

Etymology

The word as a description for a stubble field is found in medieval tithe maps and their apportionments, and is

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

in origin. Place names such as

Earsham Earsham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. Earsham is located west of Bungay and south-east of Norwich. The village is located close to the border between Norfolk and Suffolk, and the River Waveney. History Ear ...

Winnersh Winnersh () is a large suburban village and civil parish in the borough of Wokingham in Berkshire, England. The village is located around northwest of Wokingham town centre and around southeast of central Reading. It is roughly bounded by t ...

and

Wonersh Wonersh is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Waverley, Surrey, Waverley district of Surrey, England and Surrey Hills AONB, Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It contains three Conservation Areas and spans ...

derive from their situation in an earsh field. ''Hazlehurst'' means earsh (arable) land overgrown with

Hazel Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K ...

Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education" ...

describes earsh as a plowed (sic) field linking it to arrish, but also to eadish which is described as latter pasture of grass that comes after mowing or reaping, called also eargrass, earsh, and etch.

Literary references

''Fires oft are good on barren earshes made, With crackling flames to burn the stubble blade''

Thomas May Thomas May (1594/95 – 13 November 1650) was an English poet, dramatist and historian of the Renaissance era. Early life and career until 1630 May was born in Mayfield, Sussex, the son of Sir Thomas May, a minor courtier. He matriculated a ...

1628 ''It can wait another day, today I will do like Tarka, and gallop joyfully through the arrish.'' Henry Williamson 1927 ''The hay was gathered from the fields, and the cattle turned onto the eddish''. D H Lawrence 1913 D.H.Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd, (1913) chapter 1

References

External links

A Dictionary of The Sussex Dialect on-line Agricultural land Agricultural terminology English dialect words Place name element etymologies {{agri-stub