I AM afraid the name Toothill has very little to do with the railways, as suggested by Margaret Brown of Moredon.

Former West Swindon church community worker the late Olive King described the ancient origins of the word in the first ever edition of The Link in December 1979.

She wrote that Toothill is a natural or artificial piece of high ground from which the surrounding countryside can be seen. The pronunciation in some parts of the country was tuthill.

London's Tothill Street took its name from the toothill in Tootehill Fields and the records show the name in use as far back as the 13th century. Olive pointed out that the old name for a watchman was a tootere and toothill could also be the name of a watchtower.

In the Wycliffe translation of the Bible, toothill appears several times.

A number of hamlets around England are called Toothill.

London has its Tooting, Somerset has a long barrow called the Fairy Toot and in Herefordshire there is a Norman castle called Toothill.

Swindon's is an ancient site, occupied in the times of the early Britons.

Archaeological digs in the early 1970s, before the houses were built, revealed a number of Roman kilns in the area.

The only reason trains blow their horn as the pass West Swindon is to warn people using the public footpath that crosses the line opposite Toothill.

Roger Ogle

Westlea