Ostor Hill
Early-attested site in the Parish of West Haddon
Historical Forms
- Ostrou 13th PipewellA
Etymology
Ostor Hill (6″) is Ostrou 13thPipewellA . Cf. also Ostrouweye in the same document and in the Daventry Cartulary (15th).There is a tumulus here, and it would seem most likely that the name goes back to OScand austr , 'east,' and haugr, hence 'eastern barrow.' For other similar spellings of compounds of austr , v. Lindkvist 151–4. If these forms contain austr , the preservation of the inflexional r in this, as in some other names quoted by Lindkvist, is noteworthy and exceptional. Possibly the comparative form øystri , often used in p.n.'s, which would keep its r and become estre , has been replaced by an analogical formation with the vowel of the positive form and the r of the comparative. Antiquaries have associated the hill with Ostorius Scapula (Bridges i, 599). There is as little authority for this as for a similar attempt to associate him with Austerfield (Y), v. Lindkvist 151 n. 3.