The Origin of the name Sutton-in-the-Isle
The origin of the village name is something of a mystery.
"Sut" is generally taken to mean "south", as indeed it once did, but it also
meant "flax" which was grown in the area. The Saxon word "ton" or "tun" has
been various translated as an enclosure, a farm, a settlement, as well as
a town. The interpretation seems to have grown as the size of the various
settlements with the "ton" suffix did.
If we take the first meaning of "sut" as being correct for our Sutton,
then "south" of what? Apart from Chatteris, seven and a half miles to the
northwest, the only settlement of any size within reasonable distance to
the north of Sutton is Mepal. In fact, no traces of any other settlements
remain on any of the surviving maps to compete with Mepal's claim to be the
place which Sutton is "south" of.
To further confirm its claim to be the point from which surrounding
places were identified, Mepal seems to have derived its name from being the
centre of the Anglo-Saxon lord Meopa's estate. There is still much evidence
surviving in the district of the Saxon system of strip crop
cultivation.
Regardless of whether Sutton was actually named as late as this,
the village which became known as Mepal appears to have been the more important
settlement of the two as late as Meopa's time, so it may well have been that
way before as well.
On sheet 51 of the June 1836 edition of the 1" Ordnance Survey map,
the area between Sutton and Mepal is shown as "Sutton Field" and Sutton West
Fen is south and west of Mepal, rather than Sutton. South Fen is the wide
area of rich farmland which lies to the south of Sutton; these are the low
lands whose lowest point is the still the Division Drain.
As to the "in-the-Isle" suffix, Sutton was (and is) a very common
place name, even as close as elsewhere in Cambridgeshire and its surrounding
counties. To add something which most closely identified it with its nearby
administrative and geographical centre, Ely, was quite natural. The full
name is preserved and celebrated in its village sign which stands on the
small green outside the village school on The Brook.