Attleborough – Name Origin

After my expedition to Attleborough last week, this is what The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of English Placenames have to say about the name origin of the town.

Attleborough, Norfolk. Atleburc in Domesday Book and Atleburc in 1194. Aetla’s burg.

The ‘burg’ here means a fortified settlement and it was under the control of Aetla. It was quite a substantial town when the Domesday Book was compiled, with 71 settlements being recorded. There’s something that can be gleaned here from how Atleburc would have been pronounced, as if every syllable in this is spoken, then it does sound similar to today’s spelling (or it does to me anyway, others may differ….).