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.

Northstow Hundred

Hundred in the County of Cambridgeshire

Historical Forms

  • Nordstouua 1086 ICC
  • Nordstou(u)e 1086 InqEl
  • Nordstow(e), Nordstowa 1168–99 P 1279 RH
  • Northsto(u)we 1170 P 1482 Pat
  • Nortstou 1086 InqEl
  • Nortsto(u)we 1218 SR 1268 Ass 1279 RH
  • Norestov 1086 DB
  • Norstowe 1086 InqEl
  • Nor(e)stowe 1185 RotDom 1268 Ass 1444 Colexii
  • Orneston 1086 DB
  • Norston 1200 P
  • Northston 1236 Barnwell
  • Nortstowe 13th StJohn's

Etymology

'North stōw,' i.e. probably 'north meeting-place.' North to distinguish this from Longstow supra 154. The hundred is probably named from (half an acre in) Nortstowe 13thStJohn 's in Dry Drayton, a parish which forms a narrow, elongated projection of Chesterton Hundred into Northstow.