Knipton

Knipton, Leicestershire

Knipton, in the Framland Hundred of Leicestershire, is a Anglo-Scandinavian hybrid from Old Norse gnípa ‘a steep rock or peak’ and Old English tun ‘an enclosure; a farmstead; a village; an estate’. The name is topographically appropriate as the village lies in a narrow valley with hills rising steeply on each side. Pagan Anglian burials here suggest an earlier Old English place-name that was replaced with Scandinavian settlement.

Ascribed Culture

Collection

Viking Names

Keywords

hybrid name, landscape, Leicestershire, place-name

Further information

This object is related to Knipton, Leicestershire.
Find out about Knipton, Leicestershire.

Acknowledgements

Image © Andrew Tatlow, via Geograph, CC BY-SA 2.0

References

Barrie Cox, A Dictionary of Leicestershire and Rutland Place-Names. Nottingham: English Place-Name Society (2005), p. 59.

Barrie Cox, The Place-Names of Leicestershire II. English Place-Name Society LXXVIII (2002), p. 14.