Readshall

Recorded as Readshall, Redsale, Redsall, Redsell, Redsull and possibly others, this is apparently an English locational surname. However if there was such a place in any of the known surname spellings, it does not appear to exist now. This is not in itself wholly uncommon, although it remains unusual, as an estimated five thousand "places" have disappeared from the maps and gazetters of the British Isles over the past five centuries, and continue to do even in the 21st century. The reasons are complex, but include changes in agriculture, urbanisation, the draining of the fens and wetlands, coastal erosion, and in medieval times the various great plagues, which wiped out whole communities. The name would seem to mean "Reed hall" although "Red shale" is a possibility. Locational surnames were usually "from" names. That is to say surnames given to people as easy identification after they had left their original homes to move somewhere else. Spelling being at best erratic and local dialects very thick, as with this surname, often lead to the creation of "sounds like" forms. Early examples of recordings include Stephen Redsell who married Susannah Booker at St Georges Chapel, Mayfair, Westminster, on April 13th 1730, and Edward Redsale, who was a christening witness at St Lukes Finsbury, in the city of London, on December 31st 1743.