a)
WYREKINTON and WORKINGTON in A Guide to the Mountains, Lakes and North-West Coast of England (1860)
The road continues through Distington, (4m), near the ruins of Hayes Castle, Winscales, (6m), to Workington, (8m), a corruption of Wyrekinton, (pop. 6,380); Railway station; Green Dragon, Crown,) 5m. SW. of Maryport, 7m... Mackenzie EC Walcott (Oxford Uni.) - A Guide to the Mountains, Lakes and North-West Coast of England, Descriptive of Natural Scenery, Historical, Archaeological and Legendary, Pub: Stanford, London, 1860, p 97-98.
b) Leyland, the chaplain to King Henry VIII, in writing about that 'pretty fysher toun where shyppes cum to, cawlid Wyrkenton (written differently Wyrekinton and Wyrkington) refers to the name of a brooklet the Wyre; but Chancellor Ferguson more correctly points to it as the tribal settlement 'ton' or 'tun' of the Weorcingas... - Workington Hall by John F Curwen FRIBA, Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian and & Archaeological Society - Vol XVI, Ed. TWC Ferguson, Kendal, 1900, page 12 and 28.
c) Workington was anciently spelt Wyrekinton, Wyrekenton, and Wyrekington. Etymologists differ as to the origin of the name, while some derive the name from Wyre, a small rivulet which falls into the sea near Harrington. Mr. Ferguson, late M.P. for Carlisle, thinks that the original name was Wokington, from the Wokings, a family or clan found elsewhere in England; whence the name Woking in Surrey. Kemble says that the earliest Saxon occupation of England was preceded by little clans or families, of which ing, signifying son or descendant, was the characteristic sign in place of names, whence Workington. So far the etymologists. Leland, who was chaplain to Henry VIII, speaks of Workington as a place 'where shyppes cum to wher ys a little prety fyssher town cauled Wyrkinton, and there is the chef house of Sir Thomas Curwyn.' Hutchinson says that Workington was anciently 'the chief-haven of the County of Cumberland' yet about 1590, 'all the vessels Cumberland could put to sea amounted only to ten and their mariners to 198.' - Bulmer's History & Directory Of Cumberland, 1901 - Pub: Steve Bulman, 24 June 2007.
