Kellet (Over and Nether)
Kellet is in the Domesday Book at Chellet, using the softer, Old English ‘Ch’ sound rather than the harder Scandinavian ‘K’.
It is a good example of how interchangeable these sounds could be as Kellet is Old Norse in origin. The name is an amalgamation of Kelda ‘spring’ and hlið meaning ‘slope/hillside’ (the ð has a ‘th’ sound as in ‘this’). It is the same name as Kelleth in old Westmorland, situated on the River Lune just to the east of Tebay – here the ‘th’ sound has remained. Hlið is also an Old English word but specialists can usually discern a slight difference in pronunciation to be able to tell which is which.
Kellet therefore means ‘the slope/hillside of the spring’ and there are many such springs around the Kellets, although the relevant one is taken to be a spring just below the church at Over Kellet – is it still there?
The photo shows Over Kellet in the 1920s.