Survey of English Place-Names

Etymology

Arbour (2½″ only), sited near a spring in what is now a tree-filled dell at the top of Holwell Mouth infra . In 1795 Nichols, it is recorded that there is a large and commodious harbour adjoining the spring with seats all around it and a stone table in the middle . Ostensibly, then, the name represents ME  erber. But it is possible that there are the ploughed-out remains of a prehistoric fortification on the headland forming the eastern side of Holwell Mouth. If this identification is correct, then perhaps Arbour really represents a forgotten adjacent eorð- burh 'fortification built of earth', v. Baumborrowes in Ab Kettleby f.ns. (b).