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.

Forest Hill

Major Settlement in the Parish of Forest Hill with Shotover

Historical Forms

  • Fostel 1086 DB
  • Forsthulle 1122 Frid c.1425 FA 1428
  • Forestel, Foristelle c.1160 Os late12th
  • Forstel(la) 1164–6 OxonCh
  • Forstella c.1180 Os late12th
  • Forstell 1510 AD
  • Forsull' 1200 Cur
  • Foresthulle 1219 Eynsh
  • Foresthill alias Fersthill alias Fosthill 1762 Bodl
  • Foreshulle, Forestereshulle 1285 Ass

Etymology

Second element hyll. For the first, cf. PN W 245, and the reference there given to E. Tengstrand's article in Studia Neophilologica vi (1934), 100–1. The compound with hyll is found also in Furzehill Fm (W) and Fossil Fm (Do), and the first element occurs also in the two examples of Fosbury in W, Foxbury Ha and Forsham K. Tengstrand suggested that the element was a lost OE  *forst , deriving from a stem found also in Middle Dutch  vorst , 'ridge of a roof,' related to OE  fyrst , 'top, ridge,' and used in place-names of a ridgelike hill. In the Oxfordshire name, forest has been substituted for the original first element, and the forms imply the existence of this latter word in English earlier than 1297, which is the date of the earliest recorded occurrence of it in the NED. The same first element is possibly found in the fost broc of BCS 945, which was very near Forest Hill, but the form would be a poor one.

Places in the same Parish