Seteia estuary

Identification: the estuary of the Mersey

Several rivers come together to form the river called the Mersey. One of them is the Etherow, on which stood the fort called Zerdotalia. The initial Ze is a mistake, a carry-over from the end of the previous Ravenna name, Aquis Arnemeze. The Celtic form of Zerdotalia was probably Cerdodalia, comprising the hill-letters r and l, corresponding to the river-letters s and t, as in Seteia. It would thus appear that the Etherow was regarded as the main river in Roman days and that the name Seteia was applied to the combination of today’s Etherow and Mersey, the estuary of the Mersey then of course being called the Seteia estuary.

[NB. Detailed information as to the different river-letters and as to how they were combined to form compound river-names, together with information as to the four categories of Celtic river-names, is given in Chapter 19: the rivers of Roman Britain. Detailed information as to the different hill-letters is given in Chapter 1 and information as to how the hill-letters were combined to form compound place-names is given in Chapter 2] 

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