Editing Peterborough (section)

=== Toponymy ===
The original name of the town was [[Medeshamstede]]. The town's name changed to ''Burgh'' from the late tenth century, possibly after Abbot Kenulf had built a [[defensive wall]] around the abbey which was dedicated to [[Saint Peter]]; eventually this developed into the form Peterborough. In the 12th century, the town was also known as ''Gildenburgh'', which is found in the Peterborough version of the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' (see Peterborough Chronicle below) and a history of the abbey by the monk [[Hugh Candidus]].<ref>Garmonsway (pp.183 & 198–99); Mellows, 1949 (p.66). As a modern local historian has put it, this was "a rhetorical term," used in these 12th century local histories "to contrast the riches of the late Anglo-Saxon monastery with the decrease in income caused by later impositions and the despoliation of the monastic treasure by Hereward," see Tebbs, Herbert F. ''Peterborough: A History'' (p.23) The Oleander Press, Cambridge, 1979.</ref> The town does not appear to have been a [[Ancient borough|borough]] until at least the 12th century.<ref>Originating in a new name for the abbey at Medeshamstede, and not the town, the name ''Burh'' was adopted for the abbey in the late 10th century, see Garmonsway (p. 117), also Mellows, William Thomas (ed.) ''The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus a Monk of Peterborough'' (pp.38 & 480) Oxford University Press, 1949, {{OCLC|314897451}}; the addition of ''Peter'', the name of the abbey's principal titular saint, parallels development of e.g. the name [[Bury St. Edmunds Abbey|Bury St. Edmunds]] and will have served to distinguish between the two places. Exemplified in mediaeval records in the [[Medieval Latin|Latinised]] form {{Lang|la-x-medieval|Burgus Sancti Petri}}, this gave rise to the modern name Peterborough.</ref>