I have always assumed, following VCH Hants and Coates PN Hants, that the
great mansion of The Vyne (National Trust) was given its name in the early
C16 to replace the former manorial name of Sherborne Cowdray. However, in
Maurice Howard & Edward Wilson, The Vyne : A Tudor House Revealed (London :
National Trust, 2003) p. 11, I read "The name 'The Vyne', however, first
appears in documents of the thirteenth century." The reference given does
not, apparently, bear this out. Can anyone throw any light on the matter?
[The Vyne is in the parish of Sherborne St John, according to VCH Hants
sometimes called Dean's Sherborne - because the incumbent for some reason
enjoyed the title of Dean - to distinguish it from the adjacent parish of
Monk Sherborne: Coates PN Hants p. 118 appears to be in error on this
point.]
John Briggs
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