Edwinstowe
Major Settlement in the Parish of Edwinstowe
Historical Forms
- Edenestou 1086 DB
- Edenestoua 1146,1163 RegAntiq 1168 P
- Edenestowa 1194 1330 For
- Hedenestoua 1173 P
- capella Sci Edwini in Haya de Bircwde 1205 ClR
- capella Sci Edewyni t.Hy3 For 16th
- capella Sci Edewini c.1300 Welbeck
- Ednestowe 1230 P
- Ednestou 1276 RH
- Ednesto(u)we 1287 For 1428 FA
- Edenstow 1275 RH
- Edenstowe 1276,1287 For 1577 Recov
- Eddenstowe 1287 For
- Eddenestowe t.Ed1 ib
- Eddynstowe 1421 BM
- Edinstow 1576 BorRec
- Edwynstow 1300 Rufford
- Eduinstowe 1316 FA
- Edwynstoe 1625 ParReg(Mansfield)
- Edwingstone (sic) 1779 ib
- Edyngstowe 1471 Pat
- Eddyngstowe 1540 NtIpm
- Edingstowe 1633 Recov
Etymology
This name, like Edensor (PN Db 113), Edstone (PN NRY 58) and Edge Knoll (PN NbDu 71), has a first element Edenes - which Ekwall (Studies 7–8) takes to be the gen. sg. of a personal name E (a )din . This may well be correct but in the case of Edwinstowe the matter is somewhat complicated by the presence of a chapel of St Edwin . Unfortunately we do not know how old this foundation is but stow-names are very often compounded with saints' names and it would be an improbable coincidence if a place first named after one Eadin came quite by chance to be associated with St Eadwine . The chapel of St Edwin is probably a trace of the cult of Edwin, King of Northumbria, killed in the battle of Hatfield in 632. The cult, which was never general, probably arose very early, and the compound Edenestow may well preserve an ancient hypocoristic form of the king's name.