Birchanger
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1. The Meaning Of The Name
The word birchanger is a corruption of two Saxon words – bince; a birch-tree and aungpe; a place.
It has been taken to mean, under a variety of spellings over the centuries, a birch-covered wooded slope and to refer to the hill where Saint Mary’s Church now stands. We can be certain that a small settlement grew up on and around the hill with a place of worship at its core – originally a pagan temple, perhaps, but certainly later an early Christian church.
There
is no
doubt that Birchanger’s
pedigree
goes back at least as far as the beginning of the second millennium
– 1000 AD.
Below is a copy of the original entry for Birchanger in the Doomsday Book
translation
Thorkell also held Birchanger for 2 hides, as 1 manor. Then and later 2 ploughs in demesne, now 1. Always 2 men’s ploughs. 1 villager, 5 smallholders; then 2 slaves. Woodland, then 100 pigs, now 50; meadow, 6 acres; 1 mill. 2 cobs, 6 cattle, 28 pigs, 36 goats. Value then and later 60s; now 50.
