Talk:Broughton

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Name Origins[edit]

Tidying up discussion page by placing an old topic into its own section Road Wizard 21:51, 10 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The name Broughton is derived from the Saxon “Broc”, which means brook or broken land; and “Tun”, the dwelling or town.

In King Ethelred’s charter to the monastery of Shaftesbury, England, 1001 A.D., Elfwig’s boundaries at Broctun are mentioned. The Domesday Book of William the Conqueror, 1086 A.D., describes thirty-four manors of Broctun, variously latinized by the clerks of the records to: Brochthon, Brocton, Brotton, Broton, Brogton, and Broughton, perhaps according to the pronunciation peculiar to the localities where the manors where situated.

Later the spelling of Broughton (Braw’ton) seems to have generally been adopted. There are about twenty distinct parishes besides hamlets and different localities in England that bear the name. It is locally applied to a small parish in Canada, to an island in the Alatamaha River in Georgia, and also occurs in the states of South Carolina, Texas, and some of the New England States. The Broughton’s are now widespread throughout the United States, and the world.

With few exceptions, all the families that have borne the name in England are traced to the counties of Chester and Buckingham. (This is not exactly true since there are many locations called Broughton and so there are many origins. Broughtons are scattered widley across England in the 17th century and there is no way the majority of these came from, or can be traced to these two counties. Those lucky enough to link themselves to the Broughton landed gentry of Chester and Buckingham can trace their family back to the year dot.--Geoff Broughton 21:42, 7 January 2006 (UTC))[reply]

In the County of Chester, the Broughton’s descend in the male line from Hugh de Vernon, baron of Shipbroke at the time of the Conquest, whose son, Richard de Vernon was father of Adam de Napton, county Warwick, whose issue assumed their local name from Broughton in Staffordshire.

In the county of Buckingham, at time of the Domesday survey, the principal manor of Broughton was held by Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, and cousin of the Conqueror. His sub-feudatory was his brother, Hugh de Bolebec, whose descendants – the Veres Earls of Oxford – continued to hold the manor of Broughton, admitting under them another sub-feudatory – supposedly to have been a junior branch of the same family – who took his name from the place before the year 1200.

The name Broughton continued prominent among the knights and sherrifs of England for three or four centuries.

The Broughton family motto reads as follows: SPES VITAE MELIERIS… “The hope for a better life”.

Broughton is a common name in England with several origins. The Lincolnshire, England, name comes from Old English beorg + tun, meaning "farmstead by a hill or mound". The mound in this case is near the west end of the village of Lincolnshire and may have been the site of the Roman station Pretorium from about 400 AD. Many Roman coins, bricks, tiles and other artifacts have been found in the area. In the Domesday Book of 1086, the name appears as Bertone.["A Dictionary of English Place-Names," A. D. Mills, Oxford University Press, 1991]

Broughton's name may come from an Old English word meaning 'stronghold'. It is also likely to be derived from “berg” (a hill), and “ton” (a town), both Saxon words. It was referred to in 1196 as Brocton, which means 'settlement by the brook'.

The first recorded use this name was in the Domesday Book when the village of Broughton, England, was known as 'Brocton' and later in 1303 was recorded as 'Broghton' . The name is believed to be Old English in origin from the words 'bröc' and 'tûn' meaning 'Town by a stream'. Some historians believe that Broughton obtained its name from from a small Roman fort, sitting as it does on the line of the old Roman Road from Manchester to Lancaster, England. Traces of the first settlement can be found by the Blundel Brook in England.

Broughton as a place name[edit]

England[edit]

Should the various Broughton towns be grouped by county rather than being placed in straight alphabetical order?

  • Broughton, Milton Keynes
  • Broughton, Northamptonshire
  • Broughton, Oxfordshire
  • Broughton, Ryedale, North Yorkshire
  • Broughton, Shropshire
  • Broughton Astley, Leicestershire
  • Broughton Bank, Cumbria

As you can see from the above, the Broughton in the county of North Yorkshire is listed under R for Ryedale, whilst the entries above it are sorted by county. Also, the entries with a second name are left as a continuation of the list without even a line break to separate them. I would suggest one of two sorting methods:

1) All entries are sorted by county:

  • Broughton Bank, Cumbria
  • Broughton Astley, Leicestershire
  • Broughton, Milton Keynes
  • Broughton, Northamptonshire
  • Broughton, Ryedale, North Yorkshire
  • Broughton, Oxfordshire
  • Broughton, Shropshire

2) All single name entries are sorted by county and dual name entries are separated into a second list.

  • Broughton, Milton Keynes
  • Broughton, Northamptonshire
  • Broughton, Ryedale, North Yorkshire
  • Broughton, Oxfordshire
  • Broughton, Shropshire


  • Broughton Astley, Leicestershire
  • Broughton Bank, Cumbria


Does anyone have a preference, or do you think things should be left as they are? Road Wizard 19:09, 9 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think sorting just by county is a good idea, as it helps clarify where if people may get confused (e.g. between the various Broughtons within one county) Robdurbar 08:20, 10 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merge[edit]

Broughton, England, Broughton, Scotland & Broughton, Wales into Broughton disambig[edit]

Broughton, England, Broughton, Scotland & Broughton, Wales appear to be duplications of the United Kingdom place name section in the Broughton page. I suggest that the three duplicate pages (England, Scotland & Wales) are merged into - and redirected to - the Broughton page.

Does anyone have any comments or objections to this? Road Wizard 20:36, 10 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

  • Topic modified to reflect additional mergers of Broughton, Scotland & Broughton, Wales. Road Wizard 21:47, 10 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Good idea; I think that this would have happened before if people knew that the various articles existed! Robdurbar 22:33, 10 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose. If someone types in "Broughton" plus the word "Scotland" then I would have thought that it was highly unlikely that they were looking for a Broughton in another country. --Mais oui! 15:43, 11 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
But I'm not aware of any other place names that work similarly. At the moment, those pages - especially as the Wales/Scotland ones contain just three/four entires each and one 'blue link' on each page - simply replicate the content of this disambiguation page and waste space Robdurbar 15:48, 11 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I would not worry too much about "wasted space": short dab pages take up about the same amount of server space as a Redirect, which is to say: a negligible amount. --Mais oui! 15:54, 11 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Another problem with having 2 disambiguation pages containing the same content is that you will have to update both pages every time you make an edit. The editors will also all need to know in the first place that there are 2 pages to edit instead of just one. If you want to retain the 'Broughton, Scotland' sub page, the only way I can see it working would be if you removed the Scotland place name entry from the Broughton page and replaced it with a link to the 'Broughton, Scotland' page. On the 'Broughton, Scotland' page you would also need a link back to the main Broughton list. Road Wizard 17:44, 11 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]


This was a terrible idea. Why would anyone looking for "Broughton, Scotland" be looking for anywhere in England, Wales or anywhere else?