The Name
The name 'Risborough' meant 'brushwood-covered hills' and comes from two Old English words: hrisen, which was an adjective meaning brushwood-covered derived from hris meaning brushwood or scrub, and beorg which meant hill. The plural forms are hrisenan beorgas. The spelling in the various documents where the name is found is, as usual, very variable. In the 10th and 11th centuries it had the following forms:
- easteran hrisanbyrge (East Risborough)
- risenbeorgas
- hrisebyrgan be cilternes efese (brushwood-covered hills by Chiltern eaves)
- risebergh (in Domesday Book 1086).
In the 13th century it appears as parva risenburgh (Little Risborough) and in 1346, in the Patent Rolls, for the first time as monekenrisbourgh and again in 1392 as munken ryseberg.
(The prefix 'Monks' is explained under History below).
Read more about this topic: Monks Risborough
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