Tempsford
Major Settlement in the Parish of Tempsford
Historical Forms
- Tæmeseford 921 ASC c.950
- Temesanford 1010 ASC c.1200
- Tamiseforde 1086 DB 1182 P 1202,1241 FF 1242 Fees869
- Thameseford 1219 FF
- Tameseford 1220 LS 1227 Ass 1246 FF
- Temeford 1227 Ass 1245 Cl
- Temiseford 1227 FF, Ass
- Temeseford 1227 Ass 1230 Cl 1232,1241,1269 FF 1294 Ipm 1337 Fine
- Temseford 1228 FF 1284 FA 1349 ADvi
- Tamesford 1240 Ass 1323 Ipm
- Themes(e)ford 1240 Ass 1259 FF 1380 Cl
- Tamseford 1247 Ass
- Temesford 1247 Ass 1262 FF 1276,1287 Ass 1316 FA 1325 Fine 1331 Ch 1346 FA 1361 BM 1363,1380,1395 Cl 1400 CS 1428 FA Eliz ChancP
- Themisford 1276 Ass
- Tamysford 1276 Ass
- Tempisford 1526 LS
- Temysford 1551 BM
Etymology
The solution of this name is to be found in mutually complementary statements made in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Eliensis (ed. Stewart, 139). In the former we hear of the death of earl Toglos, a Danish chieftain, at Tempsford in 921. In the Ely historian we are told that earl Toli (there is little doubt about the identity of the persons or of the events) was killed 'apud Tamensem fluvium.' It is clear from this that the Ouse, or at any rate this stretch of it, must at an earlier date have been known as the 'Thames.'