Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Shotton 1249 Cl early14th Wills 1334(p)etfreqto1498–9 IPM 1555,1581,1649 Salvin 1722 HC/CB70Series2 1728 Hud

• Shotton next Seggefeld 1396 IPM

• Shotton next Sedgfeld 1561 ib

• the Capitall Messuage & tenement called Shotton 1658 Salvin

• Shotton' c.1275 Spec

• Shotton' iuxta Segefeld 1338 Ct

• Schotton' c.1270×80 Spec

• Shocton (sic) 1313 RPD

• Schottone 1323×4(p),c.1324(p),c.1339(p) GD

• Schotton iuxta Segfeld c.1340 Ct

• Schotton 1375 GD

• Scotton' iuxa Seggefeld c.1300 Ct

• Scotton early15th Cler 15th

• Shotten Hall near Stockton 1804 CG5/6

• Sceottun c.1050 HSC

Etymology

'Steep-hill farm', OE  *scēot + tūn. The present-day farm stands at the top of a short abrupt descent to Shotton Beck. Ekwall (DEPN), noting that Shotton in Glendale NbDu 180, Scotadun [c.1050] 12th, Shottone 1284, is definitely 'the hill of the Scots', OE  Scot , genitive pl. Scotta , + dūn , suggested that the same explanation might be appropriate for the other Shottons in County Durham and Northumberland. But there can be no doubt about the topographical appropriateness of *scēot in the present instance and it seems the likeliest explanation, too, for Shotton Flintshire SJ 3068, Schotton , Schatton 1283×5, Scotton 1303×4, Shotton 1452–1743 (PNEF1 132), Shotton Durham near Easington NZ 4139 (the forms Sceottun c.1050 HSC and Siotona BB are wrongly ascribed to 'Shotton near Grindon' in DEPN, i.e. the Sedgefield Shotton dealt with here; they belong properly to Shotton near Easington NZ 4139), Sceottun [c.1040] 12th, Shotton Durham near Staindrop NZ 1023, Scottun [1040] 12th, c.1104, Shotton 1428 etc., and possibly Shotton Northumberland near Stannington NZ 2276, Sothune 1196, Shotton 1270 (DEPN, NbDu 179). Forms for Shotton Shropshire SJ 4921 and YN SE 6598 are not to hand although the latter certainly lies on a steep slope.