English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Thornton Rust

Major Settlement in the Parish of Aysgarth

Historical Forms

  • Torentun, Toretun 1086 DB
  • Thorneton Ruske 1153 Dugdv.573
  • Rust 12 RichReg

Etymology

v. þorn , tun . The suffixed feudal element can best be explained if we think that the manor was at one time held by an Anglo-Scand  owner called Hrosskell , a name which appears in the Yorkshire DB as Roschil and Ruschil . Rusk would be a regular shortened form of this, and Rust a folk-etymologising perversion of it. There is nothing definitely to connect Thornton with a man of this name, but it is at least a curious coincidence that DB records a Roschil among the pre-Conquest owners of land in Richmondshire.