If you thought that the names Charlbury and Chalgrove were related, think again. Oxfordshire Place Names (Amberley, £25), by Anthony Poulton-Smith, will put you right.
It explains that Chalgrove comes from the Old English cealc-graef, meaning ‘chalk or limestone pit’, while Charlbury describes ‘the fortified place associated with the people of Ceorl.
Residents of nearby Walcot might be interested to learn that the name refers to the ‘cottages of the Britons’, a term which can still be seen as being akin to ‘Welshmen’.
Caversfield and Caversham, however, are related. Caversfield comes from Old English ‘Cafhere’s open land’, while Caversham was the homestead of a man called Cafhere. Cafhere was probably a nickname meaning ‘bold’ or ‘active’.
Under each village or town name, there are also explanations for the names of hills, fields and pubs. So the book will also tell you if there was really a feline cemetery on Cat’s Brain Hill, and how Gibraltar, California and New Zealand arrived in Oxfordshire.
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