Overview

In this significant study, Jill Bourne presents the corpus of all 70 surviving Kingston place-names, from Devon to Northumberland, and investigates each one within its historical and landscape context, in an attempt to answer the question, What is a Kingston? She addresses all previous published work on this recurrent place-name, both scholarship with an etymological focus and contextual scholarship which examines the names within their wider context. The core of the work is the hypothesis that names of the type cyninges tun or cyning tun derive not from independent coinages meaning 'manor/farm/enclosure of a king' in some general sense, or in direct relation to the phrase cyninges tun, as it is sometimes assumed in the literature, as an equivalent to villa regia. The study explores connections between Kingstons and the cyninges-tuns and villae regales of the documentary sources; considers the concept and development of early kingship and its possible origins, the laws of the earliest kings, the petty kingdoms, and emergence of the larger kingdoms for which the term Heptarchy was coined (but not used at the time); and pays particular attention to Ancient Wessex, where more than half of the corpus of Kingston names are found, and to the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the Hwicce and Magonsaete, where a further quarter lie.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jill Bourne
Publisher:   BAR Publishing
Imprint:   BAR Publishing
Weight:   0.718kg
ISBN:  

9781407315683

ISBN 10:   1407315684
Pages:   180
Publication Date:   31 May 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

Table of Contents

Cover Image Details Abbreviations Acknowledgements Abstract PART I Chapter 1. Background and Assumptions Building the corpus Analysing the corpus Status of names in Kingston Identifying Roman roads Mapping the Kingstons The structure of this work Chapter 2. The Place-name Kingston The name Previous work on the place-name Kingston Statistical analysis Kings and kingship: early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, royal power and its workings The Continental homelands and early Anglo-Saxon kingship The earliest petty-kingdoms The Tribal Hidage and the earliest English kingdoms Chapter 3. Patterns and Possibilities: Distribution and Communications The Kingston Material The tables The Kingston Material Group by Group Group 1 Counties which comprised the core of ancient Wessex prior to 726 Domesday Book royal connections and ecclesiastical status Wiltshire: Domesday Book, royal connections and ecclesiastical status Somerset: royal connections, ecclesiastical status, and Domesday Book Counties closely associated with early Wessex: Berkshire; Oxfordshire; Surrey Berkshire: charters, Domesday Book, royal Connections and ecclesiastical status Counties over which Wessex had established lordship prior to 726: Sussex; Kent Sussex: Domesday Book, royal connections and ecclesiastical status Kent: Domesday Book, royal connections and ecclesiastical status Group 2: Counties of the Severn Valley, Welsh Borders, and the West Midlands Domesday Book, royal connections and ecclesiastical status Welsh border counties Group 3: Counties lying between Watling Street and the Mersey/Humber Line plus East Anglia Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and Suffolk Group 4 Counties North of the Humber/Mersey Line Chapter 4. Interpreting the Patterns Kingstons: the royal connection Were the Kingstons villæ regales? Kingstons and the Firma Unius Noctis Kingstons sited in an apparent direct relationship villæ regales named as such in the record Kingstons and small, early 'kingdoms' The Stoppingas Kingestune (Wistow) HNT The Isle of Wight: The kingdom of the Wihtgara (Market) Bosworth/Congerstone Leicestershire Conistone (Kettlewell) and Coniston (Cold) YOW Kingston Kent: the Bourne people Kingstons: the road connection Anglo-Saxon settlement and the Roman road system The 'road/string' distribution pattern Kingstons and Roman small towns Radmanni, radchenistri and carting obligations in Domesday England Expanded Wessex: origins and chronology of the kingdom of Wessex and its kings Documentary references for Wessex The major events of the reign of Ine of Wessex 688-726 The law codes of Ine and the governance of the kingdom The foundation of Hamwic Kingstons Sited in the Severn Valley and the West Midlands The Hwicce and the Magonsæte The Hwicce The Magonsæte Cambridgeshire and Huntingtonshire The evidence so far? Chapter 5. Kingston upon Thames Kingston Hill and Coombe Hill Anglo-Saxon Kingston upon Thames A note on the 'lost' villa regalis of Fræricburna The villa regalis of Freoricburna/Fræricburna and the Hogsmill/Lurtebourne valley The site of the royal residence of Fræricburna Chapter 6. What Was a Kingston? What Kingstons were not What Kingstons might have been Were the 'original' Kingstons and the 'road/string' Kingstons kin? When were the Kingstons founded, what was the process, and by whose order? Villæ regales and Kingstons When were the Kingstons founded? In Summary And finally, was there an architect? PART II The Data Berkshire 1 Berkshire 2 Berkshire 3 Berkshire 4 Cambridgeshire 1 Cambridgeshire 2 Devon 1 Devon 2 Devon 3 Devon 4 Devon 5 Dorset 1 Dorset 2 Dorset 3 Dorset 4 Dorset 5 Dorset 6 Dorset 7 Gloucestershire 1 Gloucestershire 2 Gloucestershire 3 Gloucestershire 4 Gloucestershire 5 Gloucestershire 6 Gloucestershire 7 Hampshire 1 Hampshire 2 Hampshire 3 Herefordshire 1 Herefordshire 2 Herefordshire 3 Herefordshire 4 Huntingdonshire 1 Huntingdonshire 2 Kent 1 Kent 2 Lancashire 1 Leicestershire 1 Northumberland 1 Nottinghamshire 1 Oxfordshire 1 Shropshire 1 Somerset 1 Somerset 2 Somerset 3 Somerset 4 Somerset 6 Staffordshire 1 Suffolk 1 Suffolk 2 Suffolk 3 Surrey 1 Surrey 2 Surrey 3 Sussex 1 Sussex 2 Sussex 3 Sussex 4 Warwickshire 1 Warwickshire 2 Warwickshire 3 Warwickshire 4 Wiltshire 1 Wiltshire 2 Wiltshire 3 Wiltshire 4 Worcestershire 1 Yorkshire East Riding 1 Yorkshire West Riding 1 Yorkshire West Riding 2 Bibliography Index  

Reviews

'Jill Bourne's work is pioneering, and has been inspirational for the continuing investigations by Ann Cole and myself on burh-tun, straet-tun and so on. . This work will be a foundation on which others can build.' Prof. W.J. Blair, Queen's College, Oxford 'This is a highly original piece of work. There are few books that take an explicitly multi-disciplinary approach such as this - linking together place-names, archaeology, and landscape history to write a story about the organisation of Anglo-Saxon England . What emerges from this analysis is scholarly, wholly convincing, and deserving of a wider audience.' Peer reviewer 'This is a valuable approach, and the methodology employed here should be widely followed for other place-names.' Peer reviewer 'The writing is immediate and very accessible. Jill Bourne has a flowing and very readable style.' Peer reviewer 'All known examples of the place-name Kingston, from Devon to Northumberland, are included in this study. The author, in her thorough approach to the gathering of relevant data, has usefully drawn upon local knowledge.' Peer Reviewer

Author Information

Jill Bourne is an Anglo-Saxonist and museum professional. She has a close association with the Institute of Name Studies (INS) at the University of Nottingham, where she studied for her doctorate. Her main area of research is place-names and landscape, in particular the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. She has published extensively and is the current editor of the Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions