Dorset Place Names
Most of the place names in England were coined by the Saxons, they bringing the tongue to our shores which became known as Old English and, as the name suggests, the ancestor of modern English. In the case of Broadmayne we see a Saxon addition to an earlier Celtic or British term.
The first record of this place dates from the Domesday record as Maine and first seen with the modern addition in 1202 where it appears as Brademane.
The earlier form represents the Celtic or British main and speaks of ‘the rock or stone’, while the addition is Old English brad or ‘broad’.
It is impossible to know what this stone was or where it is today, although we suspect this was likely a marker of some description.
ANTHONY POULTON-SMITH
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