Abbotts Ann
county:
coords:
Hampshire
SU3243
Abbott's Anne
otherwise: annae; anne, 901-14; Anna, 1086
ABBOT(T)'S ANN(E), AMPORT, LITTLE ANN(E), three manors, two parishes
Usually taken to be a Celtic river-name based on hypothetical ?British 'onno-'='ash'. The Old English forms would be good spellings for this. But words for trees are not found unadorned as Celtic river names; they are suffixed or compounded. Rivet and Smith (1979) experiment with various pre-Celtic etymologies for the possibly related Romano British name 'Onnum' but the name still remains obscure. There is actually no clear evidence that this really is an old river name, because the earliest mention of Pillhill Brook, to which it would have to refer, is 1228 'aqua de Anne' which could just as easily contain 'Anne' as a district name. It is true that the manors are strung out along Pillhill Brook. But I suggest that the name is a village or estate name deriving from hypothetical Primitive Welsh 'onn' (singular) or 'on' (plural) 'ash tree(s)' as a simplex name, like ASHE and 'Ash' (Surrey). Whether the stream had a distinct early name is uncertain. The modern name is not found before 1826. Scholarship has left its mark, for the appearance of the name in Domesday Book in the form 'Anna' has motivated the recent naming of 'Anna Valley' beside the stream in Upper Clatford, in effect a suburb of Andover. The immediate motivation may be the chapter title 'The Vale of Anna' in D H Moutray Read's 'Highways and Byways in Hampshire' (1908).
The villages are distinguished as ABBOT'S ANN, LITTLE ANN and AMPORT. Abbot's Ann belonged to Hyde Abbey (the grant is the document of 901 cited) and is about 1270 'Anne Abbatis'. Little Ann is 1540 'Anne Parva'. Amport was held by the important Hampshire landholder Hugh de Port at the time of Domesday Book, and appears as 1248 'Anne de Port' 1379 'Portesanne'.
See also MONXTON, SARSON and THRUXTON.
Shown on an old map by Harrison 1788
- settlement, town - Andover Hundred - Hampshire
Period - 1780s
Shown on an old map by Morden 1695
- settlement, village - Andover extra Hundred - Hampshire
Period - 1690s-1720s
Shown on an old map by Ogilby 1675
- church - Hampshire
Shown on an old map by Ogilby 1675
- settlement, village - Hampshire
Shown on an old map by Blaeu 1645
- settlement, village - Andover Without Hundred - Hantshire
Shown on an old map by Speed 1611
- settlement, village - Andover without Hundred - Hantshire
Shown on an old map by Norden 1607
- settlement, village - Andover extra Hundred - Hamshire
Period - 1590s-1600s
Shown on an old map by Saxton 1575
- settlement, village - Southamtoniae
Listed in Domesday Book
- Andovre Hundred - Hantescire - St Peter's Abbey - Winchester parish: - Hampshire
Period - 11th century
SCI~ PETRI DE WINTONIA ... Ipsa abbatia ten. ANNA . Se~p fuit in aeccla ...
Listed in Domesday Book
- Andovere Hundred - Hantscire
Period - 11th century
