Thurton – Name Origin

This village was on the walk that I went on recently, located on the A146 towards Loddon. I’m sure that this must have caused inconvenience and confusion before, but the village isn’t that far away from the similarly named Thurlton.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of English Place Names notes:

Thurton, Norfolk. Tortuna in Domesday Book, Thermtona in 1150, Thuriton in 1248 and Thurnton in 1302. From the Old English ‘thorn-bush’.

Relatively little has changed in the village, other than the Norwich Road has been straightened, as it formerly followed the route of what is shown above as the Loddon Road. Some of the old businesses in the village have gone, but it seems that the George & Dragon pub is still trading.

I thought this was interesting, the circular marks on the modern day map on the right. When looking at an historic map on the left, they make sense as they are tumuli, or ancient barrow mounds. There were also numerous Roman coins found at the site, so it seems that there was something of a settlement here.