Place Name
Directional. The old Roman Road from Abridge to London, passing the site of the Roman settlement at Gravel lane. As the main road to London this has since early times made it the most important road in the parish of Lambourne. The name London itself is prehistoric, coming from the pre-Romanised Celts and as such no definitive explanation can be given. Various historians have made suggestions as to its meaning. John Field in Place-Names of Greater London says that it probably came from the personal name of an early chief and meant Londionos’s settlement. The name being taken up by the Roman invaders and Latinised. The very earliest reference in existence is in a tablet dated to sometime around AD65, reading: “Londinio Mogontio” which translates to “In London, to Mogontius”. Londinium is mentioned in documents around AD155. By AD150 it was referred to as Londinion and around AD380 as Lundinium. In Saxon times it had become Lundene in AD962 and referred to as Londres in the 12thCentury following the Norman Conquest and Lundin in 1205. The name originally only referred to the City of London, Southwark being The Borough and later Westminster becoming a city in its own right. As time progressed London or Greater London came to be used for administrative purposes and began to be formalised in 1888 with the formation of the County of London.
