Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Old(e)minstre 1305 MinAcct

• Old(e)mynster(s) 1540 1626 Inq

• Old(e)mister, Old(e)myster, Old(e)mystre 1492 Aug 1547 Pat 1719 Will

• Eldmunster 1415 IpmR

Etymology

Oldminster (lost), Old (e )minstre 1305MinAcct , Old (e )mynster (s )1540 ib, 1626 Inq, Old (e )mister , Old (e )myster , Old (e )mystre 1492 Aug, 1547 Pat, 1719 Will, Eldmunster 1415 IpmR. 'The old monastery or monastery-church', v. ald (with Eld - as a palæographic error for Old - or from WSax  eald ) mynster . The name was replaced by Newtown on the building of the Sharpness Docks. The allusion may be to the former site of the Anglo-Saxon monastery of Berkeley (cf. BG xlviii, 141).