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.

Claybrooke Parva

Major Settlement in the Parish of Claybrooke Parva

Historical Forms

  • Parva ~ 1261 RGrav 1285,1316 FA
  • Over ~ 1596 Fine 1721 LML
  • Church ~ 1784 Terrier

Etymology

The village stands higher than adjoining Claybrooke Magna, hence the affix Over ~ (v. uferra ). From the mid 13th cent., forms for it appear with the MLat  affix parva 'small, little', but at what date it became a separate parish remains uncertain. The bounds detailed in the Anglo- Saxon charter of 962, analysed below, are of former woodland which once lay entirely within the limits of the present parish. The village contains the old church dedicated to St Peter which served the entire land unit called Claybrooke. There is, and has been, no parish church in adjacent Claybrooke Magna. The surviving Glebe Terriers of St Peter's Church, which are entitled simply Claybrooke , relate only to land in the later three great fields of Claybrooke Parva.