The Local Place Names article was written by Stan Hughes.

Stan is an archaeologist who can often be seen walking the countryside, turning over a clod of earth to reveal buried evidence of past folk who lived and worked here long ago.
Blewbury takes its name from Blewburton Hill - Image © Bernard Mattimore
Place names are the guide to historical facts; clues to location, topography, function and land ownership.
We often take place names for granted forgetting that their origins can be traced far back in history; at first handed down by the spoken word. In southern England most place names were created by the well-ordered society of the Anglo-Saxons.