Draycott Moor and Southmoor
Major Settlement in the Parish of Draycott Moor
Historical Forms
- Draicote 1086 DB
- (in) Mora (et in) Draicote William Abingdon c.1240
- Draycot' et Mora 1220 Fees
- La More 1268–72 FF
- Dreycote 1284 Ass
- Villa de Draycote et La More 1316 FA
- Draycote cum Mora 1327 SR
- la Mor' 1396–7 ObAcc
- Draycote More als Southemore Ed6 LRMB
- South Moor als Draycott Moor in psh Longworth 1744 ArchJ
- Moore, Draycott Moore and South Moore 1747 ib
- Southmoor in psh of Longworth 1751 ib
- Moor, South Moor and Draycott Moor in psh of Longworth 1756 ib
- South Moore 1761 Rocque
- Southmoor in the Parish of Longworth 1770 StJohnMap
- Southmoor Hamlet 1838 ib
Etymology
The manor was probably originally known as Draicote , v. dræg , cot(e). The exact meaning of dræg is not known, but it may sometimes refer to a sledge, and Elements 1 135 suggests that the compound with cot(e) denotes a shed where drays are kept.
Presumably another settlement grew up in the higher ground to the S. of Draycott Fm, and this was known as More or Southemore .The names have been treated together here, as the manor is usually referred to by a combination of them.
W. J. Arkell ('Place-Names and Topography in the Upper Thames Country', Oxoniensia vii (1942), pp. 1–23) points out that Draycott Moor is the most easterly of a string of names along the top of the Corallian ridge, near the edge of the escarpment, and that mōr seems to mean 'bare upland waste' here, not 'marsh'.