Twitch Hill, Twitch Hill Fm
Early-attested site in the Parish of Ridlington
Historical Forms
- Toteshulgate 1332 Extent
- Great Tutshill' 1670 Rental 17 VCH
- grate Tutshull 1670 Rental
- Little Tutshill 1670 17 VCH
- Tutshill' meddowe 1670 Rental
- Touchill Covert 1806 Map 1824 O
- Twitch Hill 1943 Map
- Twitch Hill Close 1838 TA
- Great Twitch Hill Meadow, Little Twitch Hill Meadow 1838 ib
Etymology
The look-out hill', v. tōt-hyll. The medial -(e )s - may well be inorganic and due to AN influence in this royal vill (v. R.E. Zachrisson 'The French Element' in The Survey of English Place -Names , EPNS Vol. 1 (1924), 114, § 13). Note the close proximity of such Norman centres as Oakham, Brooke Priory, Launde Abbey Lei and Sauvey Castle (in Withcote Lei) as well as neighbouring Braunston (with AN au for a ). Otherwise we must assume that this is an example of the uncommon use of the genitive with an appellative first element and thus more precisely meaning 'the hill of the look-out place' (v. E. Tengstrand, A Contribution to the Study of Genitival Composition in Old English Place -Names , Uppsala 1940), v. tōt , hyll . The name in the earliest recorded form is compounded with Scand gata 'a road'.