Overstrand Village and Parish Council

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From Othestranda to Overstrand

There have been many suggestions made as to the original meaning and source of our village's name.

The popular and obvious theory is that it simply means "over the strand" which fits the topographical model used in many British place names. Other, more contemporary theories based on its earliest recorded form "Othestranda", propose that it simply meant "the other strand" to distinguish it from its neighbour Sidestrand.

We do not know for sure what the topography of Overstrand was like at the time but we have some clues. These are covered in the history of the church.

"Stranda" is a very common word and even today it can be found in similar form from Iceland to Norway and Sweden, throughout the Low Countries, Denmark, Germany and of course in England too. The original meaning of the word refers to that part of the shore that was exposed when the tide was out, not the beach or shore itself. Hence the word stranded. It was a widely used word of germanic origin and may well have been part of the vocabulary prior to the arrival of the Angles, Saxons and Danes.

If we take the obvious explanation of "over the strand" how does this fit with the village name recorded in Little Domesday? Well, it doesn't.

There are two common germanic words found in "old english" that translate into "over".

The first is 'ofer' which in this context literally meant "up above".

The second is 'ófer' with an accented "o" giving it a "oo" sound that meant "bordering water" and is the root of "over" found in other place names situated by water, usually rivers.

If we take either of these as its original meaning, we would have it recorded in Little Domesday as "Oferstranda" or possibly even latinised to "Overstranda".

If we look again at its recording as "Othestranda" we are offered one of two explanations as to its meaning, again these are provided by two "old english" words of widespread germanic origin:

In their earliest latinised form, these would have been written as 'othres' and 'other' but later written as above with the introduction of the "thorn" (that's the funny looking 'p') and the 'eth' (the odd looking 'd') to aid pronounciation. The 'thorn' indicated that the 'r' was silent.

Both words meant "other" in a general sense but specifically "the next or second one of two". It was common for the 'thorn' and 'eth' to be interchanged and, in a time long before dictionaries and formal education, the first - 'othres' was often written without the 'r'.

So, if we follow these clues we are left with a place name formed from two words: 'othres+stranda', 'othes+stranda' or 'other+stranda'. As a double 's' was never pronounced and rarely written, these would have been recorded as 'othrestranda', 'othestranda' or 'otherstranda' in latin.

This evidence therefore suggests that the name reflects a shortened form of a geographical and topographical description of the settlement:

"the strand next to the wide (or broad) strand".

The wide or broad strand being Sidestrand. Although recorded as "Sistran" in Little Domesday, it would not be unrealistic to suggest that the ending 'd' from both syllables were lost when being transcribed into latin from the original shorthand notes made by the clerics.

The only possible words beginning with 'si' that could have been intended were 'sid' or 'side' which both meant "wide" or "broad".  'Side' also meant "side" but only in the context of livestock e.g. "the side or flank of an ox".

If we support the "othestranda" theory above, the village would be called "Otherstrand" or "Nextstrand" in modern English.  How then did it change to "Overstrand" sometime in the 200 years following Little Domesday?

Either the clerics made an error when recording the village name from verbal evidence given when producing Little Domesday and later, a written account of the name pre-dating 1086 was discovered showing it recorded as 'oferstranda' or... (use of imagination required here) .... the de Reymes were simply not content with their manor being referred to as the place next to Sidestrand and so tinkered with the name to give it a specific identity as the place over (or by) the strand.

Either way we shall never know for sure, but the evidence does suggest that it is "the other strand next to Sidestrand".

Interestingly enough the story does not end there.

Christopher Saxton's 1574 map of Norfolk in Camden's Britannia records Overstrand as Oxstrand and Sidestrand as Sustrand.  We have accounts from the late 1700's, in which Overstrand was referred to as Oxstrand or Oxstrond and Sidestrand as Sydistrond. A published account of the villages and towns of Norfolk at that time list them as such.  18th and 19th century historians claim both settlements were founded and named by the Norse settlers, as does Walter Rye, presumably based on these accounts.

With no obvious connection to words of uniquely Old Norse origin, there seems little to support these ideas other than their being the fancy of the romantic historian.

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