Its name is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Golles-Wanesberge, with forms like Wodnesbeorge being attested a little later, around 1100, and as 'Wodnesbergh' in 1484.[3] The name is believed to have meant Woden's hill/mound (Old English Wōdnes burh) after Anglo-Saxon god Woden (the English cognate of the NorseOdin, known in Proto-Germanic as Wodanaz); though some of the spellings also suggest *wænnes beorg ('hill of the mound'),[citation needed] from Old English wenn, wænn 'a tumour, blister, mound'. At the end of the eighteenth century there is a record of a burial mound beside the church, but the settlement also boasts a hill which could equally well have been described as a burh in Old English.[4]
The village was once served by East Kent Light Railway and can now be reached by bus services from Sandwich.
There was also a post office, which closed at the end of January 2008.
Listed buildings
St Mary the Blessed Virgin Church: the village's 13th-century Anglican church is Grade II* listed, with 14th-century alterations and a Victorian restoration in 1884 by Ewan Christian. The building is made of flint and rubble and boasts an unusual ogeecupola, a design feature shared by nearby Sandwich's St Peter's Church.[5]
Woodnesborough Village Hall: the building, a former school, dates from the 19th century.[6]
Sundial north of the Church of St Mary the Virgin: dating from 1738 with the inscription "Woodnesborough W IB RG 1738".[7]
Tomb Chest to Harrison family: situated about 2 metres W of Church of St Mary, and dating from 1777.[8]
Summerfield House: an early 18th-century house with red brick and plain tiled roof.[9]
Barn about 20m E of Summerfield House: a 17th-century barn now converted to a garage.[10]
^Victor Watts (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names Based on the Collections of the English Place-Name Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), s.v. WOODNESBOROUGH.