Place Name
First recorded as Terra Nortune sometime around 1100 and later Nortonfolyot in 1433. By 1568 it was referred to as Norton Folgate otherwise Norton Folyott. John Field in Place-Names of Greater London suggests it is named after Richard Foliot, a canon of St Paul’s Cathedral in 1241 which held the manor in Norton – meaning the northern farm or estate. It may also, however, be a reference to Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London from 1163 until 1187. In either case as time past the name became corrupted as the second syllable of the name was confused and so it became gate.
