Castor
Major Settlement in the Parish of Castor
Historical Forms
- (to) Kyneburga cæstre, (be) Cyneburge cæstre 948 BCS871 c.1200
- Castre 1086 DB 1428 FA
- Castre near Peterborough 1325 Cl
- Castra 1174 P
- Caster al. Castre 1456 Pat
- Castor 1189(1332),1227 Ch 1316 Cl
- Cestre 1327 Ipm
Etymology
v. ceaster . The Roman camp here is the station of Durobrivae on Ermine St, a compound of British duro -, 'fortress,' and briva , 'bridge,' cf. Durobrivae as the old name for Rochester.The church is dedicated to St Kyneburga , daughter of Penda, king of Mercia, who according to tradition founded a monastery here in the 7th cent. Her name is preserved in a ridge locally known as Lady Conyburrow's Way (Bridges ii, 499). According to Henry of Huntingdon (c. 1115), the place was at one time called Kair Dorm , id est Dormeceastre , while two centuries later John of Tynemouth in his Historia Aurea tells us that the place was called Dormundescastre and afterwards named Kineburga castrum . It would seem therefore that the site of Castor was at one time in the possession of an Englishman named Dēormund . Dormeceastre is a reduction of the earlier name, while Kair Dorm is a pseudo-British form. Cf. VCH ii, 472.