Isbury
Early-attested site in the Parish of Marlborough
Historical Forms
- Everesbyr' 1249 FF
- Evesbury 13th Bradenstoke t.Ed2 For
- Evenesbur' 1276 StOsmund
- Enesbury 1412 Pat 1413 Inqaqd
- Isbury 1819 RCH
Etymology
This is a difficult name. Were it not for the forms Everesbyr , Evenesbur ', one might well take this name to be a compound of OE efes, 'eaves, border,' and burh . Such a compound would be aptly descriptive of the site of Isbury just on the edge of Savernake Forest where there are still earthworks on the western edge of the old Roman site here. It is difficult however to reject those two forms. One might explain the first as a case of dittography, but that would not explain the second. We seem to have AN interchange between n and r, as in the forms of Avebury supra 293–4. If that is so the interpretation of the name must remain uncertain.