Strange name; anyone know where it came from? I always think it sounds Latin, probably because of the ending -orum; second declension plural, genitive, (meaning 'of the' or 'belonging to'), but the root (noct) has me foxed. the nearest I can come is Noctis, meaning 'nights', but that is third declension, not second.
Sorry, I'm rambling again, but I'd really like to know.
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"Dry Hill" has a wiff of Stephen Harding about it to me. Chenotrie was the area supposedly mentioned in Domesday, and the changes in name can be traced through documents until its blending into today's Noctorum.
After the 1066 invasion, King William gave pieces of land, including Chenoterie (Noctorum) to Willelmus of Malbedeng. The Domesday entry records that in 1086 - "The same W. (Willelmus) holds Chenoterie, Ricardus holds from him, Colbertus held it, he was a free man. There is half a hide paying tax. Land for one plough which is there, in lordship, with two ploughmen, two villagers. The value was 15s., now 10s., it was waste."
I live in Noctorum and I thought it was a norse name??? Also, Chinitorie is on the doomsday book and one of its former owners were part of the Cadbury family!
Would be interesting if anybody else had information about noctorum....
Put in Chenoterie, the spelling from the Domesday book, and you get this from the Liverpool Museum:
PLACENAME: Chenoterie (first mentioned 1086 in the Domesday Book). Hill-town. From Old Irish noc or cnocc meaning a hill or dry hill. Cenoctirum 1119; Knoutyrom 1286; Knettyrom 1377; Knocktor 1546. The first edition six inch Ordnance Survey map (1850) shows both Chenotrie and Noctorum.