Dunstable
Major Settlement in the Parish of Dunstable
Historical Forms
- Dunestap(e)le 1123 ASC 12th P 1130 1400
- Dunistapla 1173 P
- Dunstaple 1189 Ch 1227 FF 1199 J 1766
- Donestaple 1202 Ass c.1400
- Dunnestaplia 1224 Bract
- Donestable 1287 Ass
- Dunstable 1287 QW
- Dounstaple 1307 Ass
Etymology
Perhaps 'hill post or pillar' (v. dun , stapol ), or 'pillar of the hill,' the reference being to some such erection at the spot where on open and high ground the Watling Street and the Icknield Way intersect. The situation of Dunstable, in a gap in the chalk hills of south Bedfordshire, makes derivation from dun , 'down,' superficially probable. On the other hand, the numerous early forms with e between the two elements of the name suggest that the first element is a pers. name Dun (n )a .To an OE Dunnan stapol , 'Dunna's pillar,' there are exact parallels in Barnstaple (D) and Barstable (Ess), each of which represents an OE Beardan stapol . The medieval legend that Dunstable was so called from one Dunning , who had as a thief frequented the site of the future town, receives no support from the forms which are collected here (Dugd. vi. 239). It shows, nevertheless, that the men of the neighbourhood did not believe that the name was derived from the down above Dunstable, and it may possibly preserve a distorted memory of the Dunna who left his name to the place and, as suggested by Mr Bruce Dickins, the i of the 1173 form may be from a form Dunningstapol with ing for gen. an (v. ing ).