Place-Names loi 



and Willingham, "homes of the followers of Baeddel, Cotta, DuUa, and 

 Wifel", are of a very early type. Haslingfield, "the open country of the 

 dwellers by the hazel-wood", is an early name and the site of a fifth- 

 century cemetery. Armingford Hundred and Arrington, "the ford and 

 the farm of the people of Eama", to whom Ermine Street also owes its 

 name, are early formations, and the occurrence of their name in three 

 distinct places suggests that the Earningas were of some importance. 



The element ham is, on the whole, earlier than tun, but some 

 -^on-names are older than some in -ham. Sawston, earlier Salsingetune, 

 "the farm of the followers of Salsa" (a personal-name otherwise unknown 

 in England), and Hinxton, deriving from Hengestingattm, "the farm of the 

 followers of Hengest" (a name known to have been borne by one of the 

 earliest of the invaders of Kent), are undoubtedly of greater age than such 

 names as Fordham, Coldham, and Downham; whilst from their very 

 meaning the three examples of Newnliam and the two of Newton must 

 be comparatively late. So, too, are place-names which provide evidence 

 for women as landholders : Wilbraham (the site of a cremation cemetery) 

 and Wilburton, "the ham and tun of Wilburg" and Babraham, "the ham 

 of Beaduburg". 



Although Cambridgeshire was part of the Danelaw, it was never so 

 thoroughly Scandinavianised as Norfolk and Lincolnshire. Caxton and 

 Croxton contain the Scandinavian personal-names Kakkr and Krokr 

 respectively.^ Conington is a Scandinavianising of an English Kington, and 

 Carlton of Charhon, "the farm of the ceorls". "Toft" is a Scandinavian 

 word meaning "the site of a house and its buildings", or "homestead". It 

 survives as the name of a parish, and formerly occurred as a field-name 

 in eight other parishes. But, in general, the parish-names of the County 

 give no such clear evidence of Danish influence as do those of Lincolnshire. 



Minor names, however, suggest that Danish influence was not neghgible, 

 and that, in places, it was strong. Dermy, "the island of the Danes", 

 impHes that Danes were not numerous in the neighbourhood. Such words 

 as holm "small island or dry land in a fen" (a common field-name), and 

 higging "building" (e.g. Biggin Abbey in Fen Ditton), while Scandinavian 

 in origin, are no criterion of Scandinavian settlement. But ChpsaU in 

 Soham, together with three field-names, contain the Scandinavian 

 personal-name Klippr, and Hoback Farm is a hybrid, "the beck or stream 

 in the hollow". On the borders of Huntingdonshire there are two 

 examples o( hmdr "a grove", and several o£ krokr "a bend". But more 

 interesting is the occurrence of the Scandinavian kirk and its interchange 



' They (and Toft below) may well point to a late settlement by Scandinavians in 

 this wooded area. For the woodland see p. 52 above. 



