Minchinhampton

Minchinhampton is an ancient Cotswolds market town in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, South West England. The town is located on a hilltop, 4 miles south-east of Stroud. The common offers wide views over the Severn Estuary into Wales and further into the Cotswolds.

The place-name 'Minchinhampton' is first attested as Hantone in the Domesday Book of 1086. It appears as Minchenhamtone in the Assize Rolls of 1221. The name was originally the Old English Heatun, meaning "high town or settlement". The additional element is the Old English mynecen, meaning a nun, which is related to the modern word "monk". Minchinhampton at one time belonged to the nunnery in Caen in Normandy, France. Thus the name means "the nuns' high town or settlement". . On a map of 1825 the town is labelled "Minching-Hampton" .

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