When it comes to British place names, Anglo-Saxon origins tend to dominate in the south and Scandinavian languages in the North, mixed in with Old British or Celtic terms for natural features such as hills and rivers. Derbyshire still shows the influence of all three factors in the names we find today.
Often towns and villages share common endings such as -tun (settlement), -ham (homestead), -feld (farmland), -by (village), -caester (Roman stronghold), -worthig (enclosure), -dun (hill), -halh (nook of land) – but these usually follow a first element which is much harder to define, especially when a personal name is concerned.
The famous Domesday Book – a land survey commissioned by William the Conqueror and completed in 1086 – shows Derbyshire names which have been modernised but otherwise changed very little in all that time.
To understand where they came from, we went looking in the Oxford Dictionary of British Place Names.
21. Ashbourne
Written Esseburne in 1086, meaning ‘Stream where ash-trees grow’. Photo: Lindsay Colbourne
22. Alfreton
Elstretune in 1086 became Alferton by the 12th century, meaning: ‘Farmstead or village of a man called Ælfhere’. Photo: Brian Eyre
23. Clowne
Clune since at least 1002, following the Celtic word for the river which rises nearby. Photo: Jason Chadwick
24. Sawley
Written as Salle in 1086, and Sallawa in 1166, meaning: ‘Hill or mound where sallow-trees grow’. Photo: Lindsay Colbourne