the fortified place where the plum trees grow

The English word "welsh" was the Old English word for "foreigner" or "outsider". It was, at the time, a very insulting term to use. It survives in place names with a wal- element, such as Walcot ("the cottage of the foreigners") ... Some Latin-sounding name elements were adopted by the Anglo Saxons, after Roman occupation, because they needed words to describe things they found in the British landscape that they had no word of their own for ... In south Wiltshire there's a concentration of -font suffixes (Urchfont, Teffont, etc). We think these were Anglo Saxon attempts to use the Latin word fontana to explain Roman water features, like irrigation systems and aquaducts.

(hurriedly typed and edited) notes from a talk in the public library last night, on the subject of Wiltshire's place names
Giles Turnbull

link Space and Culture May.23.04