Old Steine
Early-attested site in the Parish of Brighton
Historical Forms
- the Stein 1585 SAC2,40
- the Steene, the Steane 1677 Rental
Etymology
Old Steine (6″) is the Stein 1585 SAC 2, 40, the Steene , the Steane 1677Rental . This name must be taken along with Stains in Funtington, Stein in East Dean supra 61, 48 and unidentified examples of Stene (1327 SRS 31, 128), terra de la Stene (t. Ed 1 Battle Cust), respectively near Aldingbourne and Broomham.Outside the county we have Steyne in Chale (Wt), 1310 Ipmla Stene , c. 1300 Carisbrook Cartulary Stene , and probably Steane (Nth), DBStane , Stene , 12th Northants Surv Stanes , 1293 BM Stene , 1335 Ch Stein . This last name may however be due to confusion between OE stan and ON steinn, though we should hardly have expected to find it in this part of Northamptonshire. We have also a reference to a via voc. le Stene in a Court Roll of 1455 referring to Ealing, which presumably contains the same element. The soil at Stains in Funtington is very stony; the same is true also of Steyne in Slindon for which we have no early forms. The topography of the Steine is dealt with very fully in an article in the Brighton and Hove Archaeologist , 2, 41 ff. There it is pointed out that in 1823 large unshapen blocks of stone were dug out of the Steine, which was old common land. Steyne Wood in Chale is on a small patch of Plateau Gravel. Form and topography suggest that all these names go back to OE stǣne , used of a stony place or perhaps, on occasion, of one marked by larger blocks of stone. There is an OE word stǣne on record but it is only used of a stone vessel.It may also have had this wider sense. See further under Steyning supra 234 and Stene in Ekwall, RN 377.