What's in a Name?
The spelling for Greenwich has changed quite a few times but the meaning has mainly stayed the same: ‘green trading settlement [or] harbour’. Gronewic – 918 First recorded in the Anglo-Saxon charter of 918. A charter was usually a recorded grant of land, privilege or gift. It was recorded because Ælfthryth (daughter of Alfred the Great) gave Lieuesham, Grenevic and Uulwich to the Abbey of St. Peter, in Ghent, Belgium.[1] Grenewic - 964 Recorded in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.[2]
Grenawic – 1013 Recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.[3]
Grenviz – 1086 Recorded in the Domesday Book.
There were seven places in the Hundred of Greenwich in the Domesday Book.[4] It didn't stay the Hundred of Greenwich for very long though and became the Hundred of Blackheath in 1279.
Grenewych – 1291
Recorded in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica. The name, pronounced 'green wic', indicates Greenwich was known as a -wich town: an Anglo-Saxon settlement characterised by extensive market and trade activity. The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon suffix -wīc, signifying 'a dwelling or fortified place.
You can read about Blackheath's name, here.
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The website is still a work in progress as everything is checked against the primary sources (as far as possible) rather than relying on Google, so thank you for sticking with me.
Footnotes
Benjamin Thorpe, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – According to Several Original Authorities, Cambridge University Press. 2012
ibid
Sources
Ekwall, Eilert, 1877-1964. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names. 4th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960.
Taxatio ecclesiastica angliae et walliae auctoritate P. Nicholai IV circa A.D. 1291. Printed by command of His Majesty King George III. &c. &c. &c. in pursuance of an address of the House of Commons of Great Britain. 1802.
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