Rumburgh

Etymology

Its name is first found in this entry in Latin in the Register of St Benet's Abbey of Hulme near Horning north of Norwich, which can be dated to 1047-64: ... in cella quadam que Romburch dicitur ... = "in a certain cell which is called Romburch". This refers to the founding of Rumburgh Priory, the church of which remains as the parish church of St Michael & St Felix.

Its name is often supposed to come from Anglo-Saxon rūn-burh = "council fort", or hrōna-burh = "fort made of logs", or rūm-burh = "spacious fort"; but, as it was a remote outpost of the Abbey of St. Benedict of Holme, a theory has been raised that it is Rōme-burh (= Rome in Italy) given to it as an ironic "distance name", as was later with farms in England named Babylon or Egypt or Botany Bay because they were "miles from anywhere" and jocularly thought of as a place of exile.