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.

Cinders Wood and Mill

Early-attested site in the Parish of Tenbury

Historical Forms

  • Sundre 1313 Pat
  • Sondre 1420 IpmR

Etymology

In the first reference we have mention of houses at Sundre and in the second of the manor of Sondre . If the identification is correct we have here a wood and mill belonging to the manor.The name of this manor is clearly to be connected with OE  sundor , 'apart.' This is not known elsewhere as a name by itself and it may be either the adj. used as a noun or a shortened form of such names as sunderland or sundorwic (v. wic) which are on record in Old English. The wood lies in a remote corner of the parish and this may have some bearing on the interpretation of the name. This view is rendered almost certain by two Wiltshire Charters (BCS 586 and KCD 585). The former gives the bounds of Chelworth and includes reference to loco qui appellatur sunder on the east side of Crudwell. The latter gives the bounds of Eastcourt, on the east side of Crudwell, and on the western boundary of Eastcourt we have reference to a Sunderhamme (KCD iii. 468). The two names, one with and the other without the suffix, must refer to the same spot. To complete the analogy it should be noted that Sunderhamme still survives in a field- name Little Cindrams in Chelworth (Akerman, Possessions of the Abbey of Malmesbury in Archaeologia xxxvii, 263, 268), cf. further Sunderland in Warndon infra 175.