[2] The name Wynford derives from the Celtic wïnn and frud, meaning a white or bright stream.

[2] The affix Eagle derives from the 13th-century manorial L'Aigle family (de Aquila, del Egle).

[4] Roman remains have also been unearthed here, including mosaic pavements, which have led to its identification as a villa site.

The family lost the property in scandalous circumstances, the last Sydenham owner dying in Dorchester prison in 1709.

The church of Saint Lawrence, formerly a chapelry of the church of Toller Fratrum, and later annexed to it as a perpetual curacy, was rebuilt in 1842 but preserves a striking Norman tympanum, carved with two wyverns, probably intended to represent eagles, as a pun on the name of Matilda de l'Aigle, who presumably commissioned it, according to one of the two inscriptions; the other names the sculptor, Alvy or Alvi.