near the river Avon, on the Hampshire border, which are mentioned in Anglo-Saxon charters.[1] These cannot refer to winter, the season.
The connection of the name of tribal people with the name of the stream flowing through their territory is an old custom of topographical nomenclature. In the northern parts of Germany we find many old examples of this. Among the instances[2] are the Stur River and Stormari, or Stormar people in the south of Holstein; the Hasa River and the Hassi tribe near Osnaburg; the Havel River and the Havelli, or men of Havel, in Brandenburg, mentioned by King Alfred; the Suala River and the Swalfelda people; the Ambra or Emmer River (now the Ems), and the Ambrones or Emisga tribe; the Meisse and the people of Meissen in Wendish Saxony; the Warinna River and the Werini or Waring tribe; the Wandalus River, or Waal, and the Vandals who settled in Holland; the Hunse River and the Hunsing people in Friesland; the Hunte River and the Huntanga tribe, also in ancient Frisia.
Similarly, in England in Anglo-Saxon time we find the Wiley and the Wilsæte, the Meon and the Meonwara, the Arrow and the Areosetna in Warwickshire; the Collingbourn[3] and the Collinga people in the east of Wiltshire. Further instances of the same kind may be traced in the Old English river-names Swanburne,[4] Honeyburn,[5] Broxbourn, Ingelbourn,[6] Coquet, and others.
With this evidence before us, both from ancient Germany and England during the Anglo-Saxon period, the probability that the streams called Winterborne may have been named after people called Wintr living on their banks is strong.
In Dorset the traces of Scandinavian and Wendish settlements abound, especially in the valley of the ancient
