Meadowhall Sheffield: How did Meadowhall shopping centre get its name?

The shrine to consumerism, with its 290 stores, 50 places at which to eat and drink, 11-screen cinema and 12,000 parking spaces, doesn't conjure up images of a verdant meadow, after all, nor are there are any vestiges of an ancient hall which might once have stood where the mega mall stands today.

The name did, however, exist long before anyone dreamed of the out-of-town shopping centre, which was the UK’s second largest when it opened in September 1990, having been built for £250 million on the site of the demolished East Hecla Works of Hadfields Ltd in in the Lower Don Valley. Before the East Hecla Works was built in 1897, the land was home to Meadow Hall Iron Works, but the name goes back much further than that.

According to The Place Names Of The West Riding of Yorkshire, by A. H. Smith, it dates back to at least 1300, when there was a reference to a Madhou, with later names recorded including Maddow(e) in 1427, Madhawe in 1441 and Mead Hall in 1771.

The second part, the hefty tome states, comes from ‘haughr’, which is the Old Norse term for ‘mound’. But, despite what you might think, the book claims the first part is unlikely to be from the Old English ‘med’, meaning ‘meadow’. Instead, it may have originated from an Old English name, Mada, derived from the word ‘(ge)mad’, meaning ‘mad’ or ‘foolish’.

Given the site’s location on the line of the Roman Ridge leading to Wincobank, Smith suggests, it could also mean ‘maiden’, with the name in full denoting ‘an old earthwork which maidens frequented’ and the site potentially being of similar significance to Maiden Castle in Dorset, described by English Heritage as ‘one of the largest and most complex Iron Age hillforts in Europe. However, the author acknowledges there are ‘phonological difficulties’ with this theory.

Whatever the truth, next time you’re at Meadowhall for some retail therapy or a bite to eat, perhaps you’ll take a moment to ponder its fascinating past.