Chark Common
Chark Common, Farehamcounty:
Hampshire
otherwise: Cherk, 1256-1262; Chark, 1256
CHARK in Crofton
(A fancy spelling is preserved in 'Cherque Farm'.) Gover compares the English name for a Welsh town 'Chirk' from W 'ceiriog'='rocky'. The Hampshire name appears, by that theory, to be for W 'carreg'='rock'. It is not known what rock is alluded to. Perhaps rather an inexplicable alteration of Old English 'cert/caert'='rough common', found in simplex names in Surrey and Kent. Chark 'Common' is on an outlier of the Barton/Bracklesham Tertiary sequence of rocks, said to be 'poor in texture, ill drained, acid and highly podsolized' (Tavener 1962: 33).
