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.

Mersham

Early-attested site in the Parish of Wartling

Historical Forms

  • Meresham

Etymology

Mersham (6″) is Meresham n.d. Bay 67d. It is virtually certain that an OE  form of this name is to be found in the mæreshamm or mereshamm of BCS 821, 822. The bounds of Hankham and Glynleigh are there said to touch those of mæresham and pass from there to those of Ersham supra 436. The boundaries cannot be exactly traced owing to the nature of the ground and the bad text of the charter, but it is most unlikely that there existed in the immediate neighbourhood of Mersham another place of the same name. The name must mean 'enclosure of (or by) the pool.'