Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Mod-Barrow or Modbury 1870 Hutch3

• in via regia usq' Molbarawoh (sic, probably for Motbarawoh) 14 Winch 16

Etymology

Modbury (lost, probably about ST 607017), Mod -Barrow or Modbury 1870 Hutch3, 'barrow where meetings are held', from (ge)mōt and beorg , thus identical with Modbury in Swyre par. supra . It is described by Hutch3 4500 as an 'ancient barrow which gives name to the surrounding hundred' (of Modbury), which must have had its meeting place here, v. hundred name supra for early spellings and further discussion. A point in the medieval bounds of Sydling St N. par. infra , where on the W side of the par. the boundary proceeds in via regia usq ' Molbarawoh (sic, probably for Motbarawoh )14 (16) Winch (18278), no doubt belongs here (the via regia is the Dorchester- Ilchester Roman road, here called Long Ash Lane, which forms the par. boundary). The approximate location for the lost barrow is suggested by this medieval boundary clause and by the statement in Hutch3 (4 1) that Modbury is 'on the hill north-east of Cattistock, between that and Cerne, where the hundred-court was formerly kept' and that (ib note 6) 'Old people say, that (in perambulation) the boundaries of the parish towards Sydling were considered to extend a few feet beyond this barrow. The Roman vicinal way from Dorchester to Ilchester is supposed to have passed very near this spot.'