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.

Landskerry

Early-attested site in the Parish of Milton Abbot

Historical Forms

  • Lanskery 1544 SR
  • Landsgerry 1729 Deed

Etymology

As the place is near the parish boundary the name clearly derives from OE  landscearu , 'boundary, landmark.' For the s (k ) v. Introd. xxxv and Stevenson's note in the Crawford Charters , p. 48. He there points out that the term is distinctively southwestern, only being found once elsewhere, viz. in an 11th cent. Northamptonshire Charter (KCD 736). In East Devon landscore is common as the name of a boundary lane. We also have landshare , 'headland in a field,' and landsherd , 'ridge or strip of untilled land between two crops or marking a boundary.'