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.

Four Shire Stone

Early-attested site in the Parish of Evenlode

Etymology

This stone stands where the shires of Worcester, Warwick, Gloucester and Oxford meet. In BCS 1238, a 12th cent. copy of a charter of 969, we find that the bounds of Evenlode, at one point of their circuit, run from one stone to another stone and then to a third and then to a fourth. So that in those days there must actually have been four stones at this point.

Places in the same Parish

Early-attested site

Major Settlement