Bringhurst is a small village and civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in the Harborough

Harborough

Harborough is a local government district of Leicestershire, England, named after its main town, Market Harborough. Covering , the District is by far the largest of the eight district authorities in Leicestershire and covers almost a quarter of the County....

 district of Leicestershire

Leicestershire

Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...

. It is in the south-east of the county, close to the borders with Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

 and Rutland

Rutland

Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....

. Nearby places are Cottingham

Cottingham, Northamptonshire

Cottingham is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire in the English midlands that can trace its history back to Roman times. Cotingeham is listed in the Domesday Book and is also mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It is located north-west of the town of Corby and is administered as...

 in Northants, Great Easton and Drayton

Drayton, Leicestershire

Drayton is a village in Leicestershire, England in the district of Harborough. It was formerly in the Parish of Easton along with the nearby villages of Bringhurst and Great Easton. It has one of the smallest churches in England...

 in Leicestershire, and Caledecott

Caldecott, Rutland

Caldecott is a village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is located about four miles south of Uppingham and is the most southerly village in Rutland....

 in Rutland.

The town antedates the Norman Conquest (1066 AD) and was given by one "Ranulfe", a kinsman of King Edward the Confessor to the Abbey

Abbey

An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 of Peterborough

Peterborough

Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...

 (Knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

 "Geoffrey de Bringhurst").

There is a village church which in parts dates back to the 11th Century. The older houses are made of local stone and either roofed with thatch or collyweston slate. One house is thought to date back to 1636.

The name of the village predates its use as a family name

Family name

A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...

, the earliest mention of which is dated 1260. Earlier variations of the name, such as "Bruninghurst" were first recorded in 1188. Other variations include "Bringherst", "Brinkhurst", "Bringhast", and "Bringhaste". The etymology

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

 of Bringhurst comes from the personal name

Personal name

A personal name is the proper name identifying an individual person, and today usually comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age plus a surname. It is nearly universal for a human to have a name; except in rare cases, for example feral children growing up in isolation, or infants...

 "Bryni" derived from "bryne" (Old English), meaning "fire" or "flame", combined with the word "hurst" or "hyrst" meaning "wooded hill" in Old English, related to Old Saxon

Old Saxon

Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...

, and "hurst" or "horst" in Old High German

Old High German

The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...

.