{"id":1076,"date":"2020-05-11T16:11:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T16:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevanbundell.co.uk\/?p=1076"},"modified":"2025-01-15T19:39:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T19:39:51","slug":"curdridge-and-curbridge-the-same-or-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/2020\/05\/11\/curdridge-and-curbridge-the-same-or-different\/","title":{"rendered":"Curdridge and Curbridge \u2013 the same or different ?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"           \"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

                 Curdridge                                                       Curbridge<\/h6>\n

I have often wondered whether the two Curs <\/em>in our parish[1]<\/a><\/sup> are the same or different. That is, are they of same etymological origin, or are they just an historical coincidence ?<\/p>\n

The first thing I noticed when I began to explore this mystery is that the first edition of the Ordnance Survey 1 inch map of South Hampshire solved the problem by deciding that they were one and the same. According to the map there is no such place as Curdridge<\/em>. Everything is labelled Curbridge \u2013 <\/em>not only Curbridge itself, but also Curbridge Common<\/em> (the fields from the top of Station Hill to Lockhams Road, Curdridge Lane and The Plantation) and Curbridge House<\/em> (now Kitnocks House at the top of Kitnocks Hill). They should, of course, be Curdridge <\/em>Common and Curdridge<\/em> House. Either the surveyors got confused or maybe someone in the office decided that the surveyors had made a spelling mistake. Fortunately, this was all corrected in later editions.<\/p>\n

The next thing I did was e-mail my friend, and local historian, David Chun. He has written a fine book on the history of the River Hamble and its surrounds so I thought I\u2019d ask what he knew about Curdridge<\/em> and Curbridge<\/em>. He advised me that he had read that \u2018place name interpretation is complex, and not something that an amateur should dabble in!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

However, he also referred me to \u2018The Place-Names of Hampshire\u2019 <\/em>by Richard Coates (1989). He then pointed out that there was a copy available on Amazon for 79p. I bought it at once. The postage was a good bit more of course, but still, it was a good purchase: it answered my question.<\/p>\n

Curdridge <\/em>originates from an Anglo-Saxon name meaning Cuthred\u2019s ridge. <\/em>In other words, some chap called Cuthred \u2018owned\u2019 or had otherwise been granted possession of what we now know as the village of Curdridge, which lies \u2013 largely – on a ridge.<\/p>\n

Curbridge, <\/em>meanwhile, was variously known \u2013 or at least spelt \u2013as Kernebrugge, Kerebrigge, Kernebregge<\/em> and Cornebrigge. <\/em>These names \u2013 or spellings – do not obviously have any connection to our man Cuthred. The common cur<\/em> component in the two village names is, it would seem, a coincidence.<\/p>\n

But then there is another mystery. Mr Coates is not at all sure what the meaning of Curbridgde\u2019s Kerne,<\/em> etc, might in fact be. He is convinced on historical-linguistic grounds that it comes from the Anglo-Saxon for quern \u2013<\/em> that is, the lower stone of a hand-driven grinding mill, once a common domestic item. He is then understandably unconvinced that anyone would try to build a bridge over a river with a collection of quern-stones. It is, he says, a question he prefers to leave open.<\/p>\n

One possibility, of course, is that kern <\/em>does not refer to \u2013 or describe \u2013 the bridge<\/em>, but was, as it is now, the name of the river<\/em>. But then why would you name a river after a grinding stone ?<\/p>\n

My reluctant conclusion is that what David said is right and that this is not the sort of thing an amateur should dabble in.<\/p>\n


Kevan Bundell<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n

    The Parish is Curdridge, of which Curbridge is a hamlet. \u2191<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                Curdridge                                                       Curbridge I have often wondered whether the two Curs in our parish[1] are the same or different. That is, are they of same etymological origin, or are they just an historical coincidence ? The first thing I noticed when I began to explore this mystery is that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19],"tags":[82,126],"class_list":["post-1076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curdridge-local-history","category-local-history-curdridge","tag-curdridge","tag-local-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2004,"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions\/2004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bundellbros.co.uk\/kevansmiscellany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}