River Orwell pre-Celtic; but "-well" probably indicates an Anglo-Saxon naming. In "A tour through England and Wales" written in 1722, Daniel Defoe calls the river "Orwel" (though does this inconsistently). He also mentions that "a traveller will hardly understand me, especially a seaman, when I speak of the River Stour and the River Orwell at Harwich, for they know them by no other names than those of Maningtre-Water, and Ipswich-Water". The writer Eric Blair chose the pen name under which he would later become famous, "George Orwell", because of his love for the river. A few miles north of the Orwell is
Orwell, Cambridgeshire Orwell, Cambridgeshire Orwell is a small rural village outside Cambridge in South Cambridgeshire, England. The Prime Meridian passes the eastern edge of Orwell. The village of Orwell grew around the well that gave it its name and the Roman road that runs to Cambridge runs alongside the village. Listed in the Domesday Book as "Ordeuuella", ("Ord Wella", in Old English) the village's name means "spring by a pointed hill". The hill in question may be the natural one which lies behind St. Andrews Church. However, it is anything but pointed. There was once a man-made hill near to where the