Swaythling
Swaythling, Southamptoncounty:
coords:
Hampshire
SU4415
otherwise: swaethelinge, 909-11?; swaethelingeforda; swaethelingforda, 932-13; swaetheling wylle, 1045-12
SWAYTHLING in North Stoneham
Despite 5 separate mentions in Anglo Saxon times, and despite the remarkable similarity of these, the name remains difficult. Swaythling seems to have been the name of the stream now called 'Monk's Brook' which falls into the Itchen here; the form of 1045, apparently 'the stream (called) Swaythling', may support this view. It may be a singular '-ing' name based on hypothetical Old English 'swathul, (?)swaethel'='smoke, (?) mist', and if so therefore 'place of mist'. It would be interesting to know more about the microclimate of the area. Old English 'swethel'='wrappings, swaddling bands' might be considered, in use as a topographical term, but the stream is not especially winding and nothing else would seem to justify such a name.
Shown on an old map by Ogilby 1675
- settlement, hamlet - Hampshire
