Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Westminster pondes 1611 Rut

Etymology

is now the name of a large fishpond , first recorded as Westminster pondes 1611Rut , v. ponde . The present pond lies just to the east of the site of St Mary 's Priory and the ponds may formerly have been its stews . The origin of the name is obscure since it seems unlikely that by 1611 Westminster was a transferred name ( but cf. Windsor Hill ( forms from 1601 ) to the south of the castle ) . Perhaps the priory church was seen as the ' west minster ' in relation to the ' east minster ' , the lost St James 's Church in Old Church Wood , Woolsthorpe , about one mile away across the valley of R. Devon .