New book on medieval place names
New Book Reveals the Hidden Meanings Behind England’s Early Medieval Place‑Names
Place-Names and Landholding in Early Medieval England: The meaning and uses of tūn
By Sarah J. Wager
Publication date: 16 March 2026
Paperback * £16.99 * ISBN 9781912260768
“This is an admirably forensic examination of an important, and controversial, category of English place‐names. It makes a most welcome contribution to our understanding of Anglo‐Saxon society, at both local and national levels.” Steven Bassett, University of Birmingham
A landmark new study, Place-Names and Landholding in Early Medieval England, offers a fresh and compelling interpretation of one of the most widespread and historically significant elements of English place‑names: tūn, the origin of today’s familiar “‑ton”.
Drawing on decades of scholarship and a meticulous re‑examination of documentary, archaeological, and linguistic evidence, author Sarah J. Wager challenges long‑standing assumptions about how and why so many places acquired names ending in tūn. Rather than viewing these names simply as generic labels for farms, enclosures, or settlements, Wager argues for a more nuanced understanding rooted in patterns of landholding, social change, and the evolving landscape of early medieval England.
The book opens with an extensive introduction that situates place‑name studies within wider debates on post‑Roman Britain, migration, language shift, regional identity, settlement forms, and the emergence of political authority. Wager traces how charters, parish boundaries, archaeological discoveries, and shifting linguistic habits together reveal a dynamic and often unstable naming environment, where meanings changed, place‑names were bestowed or replaced, and communities renegotiated their relationship with the land.
By re‑examining recurrent compounds such as Wootton, Merton, Grafton, and the many directional tūn names, Wager questions prevailing theories of “functional” place‑names – names thought to signal specific administrative or economic roles in Mercian or later Anglo‑Saxon governance. Instead, her analysis suggests alternative explanations grounded in patterns of ownership, lordship, and the long‑term importance of land as a source of wealth, status, and survival.
Sarah J. Wager’s research sheds new light on:
- How place‑names evolved in response to political and social change
- The relationship between naming practices and landholding structures
- The regional diversity of naming traditions across early medieval England
- The role of tūn in expressing identity, authority, and landscape use
Place-Names and Landholding in Early Medieval England is an essential contribution to the fields of Old English linguistics, landscape history, and medieval studies, and will appeal to scholars, students, and general readers interested in how English places came to acquire the names they still bear today.
For further information please contact UH Press marketing and publicity co-ordinator Chris Dunkley at c.dunkley@herts.ac.uk