The name is a “Hoisting Place” on the Laugharne Common Walk. This is a ceremony of beating the bounds held once every three years, when the people of the town, led by the Portreeve and the officials of the Court, retrace the town’s ancient boundaries. Ritual “hoisting” is used to remind younger walkers of the location and name of Hoisting Places – more civilised than the more corporal ways of getting young boys to remember bounds in some historical records.

The name is not mentioned in the Town’s Charter dated 1307, but the Common Walk is recorded as far back as 1650, and has been regularly performed since 1711. The name is included in a list of names on the Common Walk in the Carmarthen Journal and South Wales Weekly Advertiser of 9th June 1909. With many other names of Hoisting Places, is not in current use, but is passed down from the leaders of the walks over the years. The exact location of the named Hoisting Places is not publicly distributed, so I have been unable to precisely locate this site.

In these circumstances the origin cannot be stated with any confidence. However, some of the other names given (Merry Moor, Cuckoo, Knaves Lane, Oaten Cake & Cheese) appear to be similar, and jocularly derogatory. Knaves Lane is similar to Knaves Acre used by William Bullein in 1562 together with Beggars Barn in a phrase which was precursor to the literary use of Beggars Bush.

Sources

The Common Walk

Laugharne History

Further Reading

Hindle, Steve, ‘Beating the bounds of the parish: order, memory and identity in the English local community, c.1500-1700’, pp.205-28 in Halvorson, M., and Spurling, K., (eds.) Defining Community in early modern Europe, Ashgate, 2008.

Thanks

Alderman Keith Pierce and Noel King