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.

Tormarton

Major Settlement in the Parish of Tormarton

Historical Forms

  • Tormentone 1086 DB
  • Torremareton' 1199 FF
  • Tormarton(e), Tormartun 1166 RBE 1220 Fees 1221 Ass 1706 PR
  • Tormerton(a) 1183 AC 1211–13 Fees 1287 Ass 1584 Comm
  • Tormerton(a) als. Tormutton 1559 FF
  • Tormerton(a) als. Tormton 1642 Rec
  • Thoremareton 1216 ClR
  • Thormerton 1248 Ass 1293 Episc 1587 FF

Etymology

The parish is on the Wiltshire border and, as in the p.ns. Rodmarton and Didmarton (i, 105, iii, 28 supra ), the second theme is 'boundary farmstead', v. (ge)mǣre, tūn . The prefix Tor - offers difficulties; Ekwall takes it to be OE  torr 'hill', but topographically this is unlikely, more especially as torr usually denotes a rocky eminence, and there are Thor - spellings which would need to be accounted for.It could be the Anglo-Scand  pers.n. Thor or Thori (AN  Tor , Tori ) which occurs as the names of tenants TRE as far south as Worcestershire and Somerset (Feilitzen 390, 393), but it is more probably OE  þorn 'thorn-tree' which is sometimes reduced to Thor - before consonants in such p.ns. as Thorley (Hrt 204) and probably in Farmington (i, 172supra ), cf. Phonol. § 37 (b ). The spellings of the latter and Tormarton are difficult to keep apart.