Erme Gardens

Erme Gardens, which is surrounded by Severn Place, is one of the many early 1950s Efford streets to be named after a British river.

In this instance, the river is a little closer to home than most. Rising within a mile or two of the Plym and the Avon, the Erme has been described as the 'loneliest, somehow the most secret, of southern Dartmoor's three larger rivers'. It is thought that the Erme, like the Plym, owes its name to a 'back formation', in other words it takes its name from a place on the river rather than giving its name to that place.

In this case, the place is Ermington, which was recorded as Ermentona in the Domesday Survey, 150 years before the first written references to the river in the 13th century - Irym in 1240 and Erm in 1280. The 'ton' element is a farm or settlement, while it is suggested that the prefix 'lermen' could either mean chief, or great.