RootsChat.Com

England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Gloucestershire => Topic started by: supermoussi on Friday 03 December 10 15:10 GMT (UK)

Title: Haresfield & Harescombe
Post by: supermoussi on Friday 03 December 10 15:10 GMT (UK)

Do Haresfield and Harescombe suffer from an infestation of hares or were they named after something completely different?  :D

Title: Re: Haresfield & Harescombe
Post by: supermoussi on Friday 03 December 10 15:17 GMT (UK)

Oh, and does anyone know if they were mentioned in the domesday book? Thanks  :)

Title: Re: Haresfield & Harescombe
Post by: ChasH on Friday 03 December 10 15:25 GMT (UK)

Harescombe - Hersecome: Haresfield - Hersefeld.  Both Kings land in Domesday Book.

Have no more info.

Regards

Chas

Title: Re: Haresfield & Harescombe
Post by: supermoussi on Friday 03 December 10 15:39 GMT (UK)

Thanks ChasH  :)

Does that mean Herse is a latin word or is it anglo-saxon? Could it be "Horse field" rather than "Hares field" or was there a person called "Herse"? (presumably it isn't "Hearse Field"  ;) )

Title: Re: Haresfield & Harescombe
Post by: ChasH on Friday 03 December 10 18:01 GMT (UK)

If you need more such info there's a link in the Resources Messages Index to GLS Placenames.

Regards

Chas

Title: Re: Haresfield & Harescombe
Post by: supermoussi on Saturday 04 December 10 08:42 GMT (UK)

Thanks ChasH.

So it looks like it was named after some anglo-saxon (or even Roman?) person called Hersa.

The reason I asked was because I saw Haresfield referred to as "Harres Feld" in a will in the 1500s of someone with the surname Harres. Seeing as most people only adopted surnames in the 1300s it looks unlikely that the owner of the will had anything to do with the naming of the place, and that it was just a coincidence (or even a bit of creative spelling by the clerk) that the person's name matched the place.