Elvendon

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Elvendon
Oxfordshire

Field above Elvendon Priory
Location
Grid reference: SU624813
Location: 51°31’38"N, 1°6’5"W
Data
Local Government
Council: South Oxfordshire

Elvendon is a small settlement in Oxfordshire, amongst the Chiltern Hills, near Goring-on-Thames.

In the parish is Elvendon Priory, country house of more ancient origin which is a Grade II listed building.[1]

Name

The first element of the name is agreed to be the word elf, either in singular or plural form.[2][3]:67 The second element was long thought to derive from Old English dun ('hill'), but reanalysis of the primary evidence revealed that the second element is from Old English denu, which means 'valley'. Thus at the time when it was coined, the name meant 'elves' valley' or something like it.

References

  1. National Heritage List 1194131: Elvendon Priory (Grade II listing)
  2. Alaric Hall, 'Are there any Elves in Anglo-Saxon Place-Names?', Nomina: Journal of the Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland, 29 (2006), 61-80 (p. 76).
  3. Ann Cole, 'Two Chiltern Place-names Reconsidered: Elvendon and Misbourne', Journal of the English Place-name Society, 50 (2018), 65-74.