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.

Deerhide

Early-attested site in the Parish of Boarstall

Historical Forms

  • Derhyde 1260 Pat 1285 QW 1289 Ipm
  • la Derhide 1276 RH

Etymology

v. deor , hid . This 'hide' was supposed to have been granted to Nigel, lord of Boarstall, by Edward Confessor together with the hereditary custody of Bernwood Forest, in reward for his slaying of a formidable boar. Whatever the truth of this story of the hide it is clear that it can gain no support from the name of Boarstall itself for the first element in that name clearly has nothing originally to do with boar (OE  bār ).

Places in the same Parish