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.

Black Bourton

Major Settlement in the Parish of Black Bourton

Historical Forms

  • Bortone 1086 DB
  • Bvrtone 1086 DB
  • Burtona 1122–33 OxonCh 1385 Cl
  • Burgton' 1268 Ass
  • Abbodesbourton 1323 Cl
  • Bourton 1360 Ipm 1385 Cl 1526 LS
  • Bourtone 1433 Os
  • Boorton 1526 LS

Etymology

v. burhtūn . The Abbot is the Abbot of Osney: v. Os iv, 475 ff. for the possessions of Osney in this town. E. Carleton Williams, Companion into Oxfordshire (London 1935), p. 240, suggests that 'Black' was prefixed because “the land belonged to Osney Abbey, and the Austin Canons, in their black habits, worked the Manor Farm.”

Places in the same Parish

Early-attested site