The name of the town of Richmond is a long-travelled one. It was unknown in Britain prior to 1066 when it was brought to the island by Alain Rufus, the Count of Richemont, one of William the Conqueror's allies.

It was Alain who, after being given land at Richmond, built there, the impressive castle that dominates the settlement to this day and that gave the Normans a base against rebellions in Northumbria and the north more generally. And with the passing of only a few generations, the French Richemont' softened into the English Richmond' that we know so well.

From there it travelled even further.

It was later the Earl of Richmond - the English Richmond that is - that gave the name Richmond to a castle and to a quarter of London and, of course, to Richmond Park in the capital.

But let us forget, for a moment, about the subsequent fortunes of the name and turn, instead, to Richmond itself, for there was an earlier chapter in the town's history that is forgotten by residents and visitors alike.

Before Alain came with his Norman men at arms, it was known as Hindrelac, a name that it still went by in the pages of Domesday Book, written the very year that the final stones of Alain's castle were being hauled into place.

Now Hindrelac meant in Anglo- Saxon, the Hind's Woodland Glade', that gives you some idea of what Alain and his warriors would have found on arriving there. Deer chewing pensively on grass or locking tines as Yorkshire rain and the Yorkshire evening came down through the trees.

● Simon Young is a historian and author of AD500.