The origin of the name seems to have been due to its
geographical position and to be as follows viz,-- According to the
Anglo-Saxon dictionary --- Merccels or Miccels is a derivative from
"Mearc" meaning a limit, a boundary ( of a Place), a border. Mearc
is the same word as Marche, indicating the boundary or frontier of
a districts as " the Marshes of wales " and in Scotland at the
present day they speak of adjacent estates as marching side by side
: the syllable "den" stands for "dene" or"dean" meaning a valley,
(as in Jesmond Dene, the public gardens at Newcastle upon tyne and
the Dean Cemetery at Edinburgh ),Now both Great and Little
Merclesden stand at the head of boundary valleys between Lancashire
and Yorkshire and there can be little doubt that these townships
got their name of " Mercles-den(e) from this fact , There is
another Marsden village partly in the manor of Huddersfieldand
partly in the monor ofAlmondbury, co. Yorkshire. It is also aborder
township just over the boundary on the Yorkshire side. and at the
head of the Marsden ( in Yorkshire ) valley is in Marche Hill,
still closer to the boundary between the two counties. Doctor
William Farrer , D,Lit,F.S.A. In his "court rolls of the Honor of
Clitheroe " 1897, P,227 note, Suggests another derivation of the
name, he says, "Aske Marsden, a name sometimes used for Great
"Marsden: Ask or hask, derived from the Icelandic or Danish
Harsk,"is the equivalent of our word harch, and is descriptive of
the rough "and sour land lying in the north and north west sides of
this "township," "Marsden or Merclesden as it was anciently written
- seems to be " derived through the Icelandic from the Gothic
"Margel" I,e., Merl, : the material anciently used for enriching
arable land, certainly marl :pits used to abound in this and the
adjoining townships and merled :earth (I.e., merled land) was a
name Frequently applied to farmholds : throughout east Lancashire,"
Marsden was a ville or township within the manor of Colne and was
probably an encroachment within theBoundaries of the original
forest ofTrawden made very shortly after the time of the Norman
Conquest. The name has many variants of spelling according to idea
of the person who made the record at the time, From the method of
pronouncing the vowels, etc. In different districts: thus we have
Merclesden, Merlesden, Mersden, Marsfden, Marston, Merston,
Merstyn, Marscheden, Mersceden, Marshden, Marsdin, etc.
Source: A History Of The Marsden Family.
Source:http://www.freewebs.com/marsdens/Book/book.htm#step3
