Polendine

Recorded in at least two spellings Pollendine and Polendine, and possibly Polden, this surname is of early English origins. It is probably locational from a place such as Polden in the county of Somerset or Polesden in the county of Surrey, or more likely still, from a now "lost" medieval village of which the only reminder in the 20th century is the surviving surname. It is estimated that at least three thousand British Isles surnames originate from now lost villages, so whilst still unusual the genre is not unique. As to why so many places disappeared has to be put down to changes in agricultural practices such as the change from arable to sheep farming from the 16th century, with the development of the Industrial Revolution, possibly as well the great plagues which swept through Europe between the Middle Ages and the 17th century which sometimes wiped out whole communities, and particularly the urbanization, which has caused outlying hamlets to be included within the growing towns and cities over the past five hundred years. Certainly no place with a spelling quite like the surname appears to exist, although there are a number of places which incorporate the three elements of "pol" meaning a boundary marker, "en" a French form of in, and "dine", a form of "denu" meaning a valley. The district of the town of Huddersfield in Yorkshire known as "Salendine", means the place where salh, a form of willow, grew in the valley. Early examples of the recordings include: James Pollendine who married Margaret Alderton at St Anne Soho, Westminster, on July 7th 1734, and Elizabeth Polendine, who married William Alden at the church of St Lawrence Cowley, in the city of London, on February 2nd 1775.