Haresfield & Harescombe

[supermoussi]

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

[supermoussi]

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

[ChasH]

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

Have no more info.

Regards

Chas

[supermoussi]

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"  )

[ChasH]

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

Regards

Chas

[supermoussi]

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.