Mare Ridge

 

​Mare Ridge with the farm at the right of the pictureAlthough the name in current times is written as May Ridge and pronounced is as it is spelt, The original name is Mare Ridge and until very recently (certainly in the 1950s and 60s) the local pronunciation was “Merridge” - as it still is among older people born in the village. The name comes from the ridge of high ground, named Mare Ridge, on maps from the 18th century up to and including the Ordnance Survey map produced between 1896 and 1904. While the old form was still being used on maps it was being written as "Mayridge" in the 1890s by the Reverend Arthur Heigham in the parish magazine.

 

 In her 1892 history of Ufton Court, Mary Sharp says that in early days this high ground was called marrugge or marrige; possibly deriving from mere-ridge, a local term for the low turf ridges or banks dividing the different portions of the common meadows. The wood along this part of the ridge, called Ufton Wood, was formerly the common woodland of Ufton and overlooks to the south the fertile land that was the common field of that parish.