Essex Field-Names
Collected and arranged by
William Chapman Waller, M.A., F.S.A.
An extract from the
Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, ‘new series’ Volume 5 (1895)
Part I: The Hundred of Ongar,
and the Half Hundreds of Harlow aand Waltham [Extracts cover High Country
Parishes only]
Short and disconnected lists
of field-names appear from time to time in various publications, but, as far as
I know, no attempt has hitherto [to 1895] been made to collect and arrange
systematically those which are found to occur over the whole area of any
particular county. A passing reference
made some years ago (by whom and where, I have forgotten,) to “the valuable
lists of names contained in the Tithe Commutation Awards,” stuck, as such
phrases will, in my mind, and it occurred to me that I would some day try to
collect those parishes comprised in the Hundred of Ongar. My first intention was to make a pilgrimage
to each parish and there to inspect its particular Award. But further consideration led me to abandon
this plan as not only tedious but impracticable. Later on, acting in concert with Council of
the Society, I approached the Board of Agriculture, in whose custody the sealed
copies of various Awards are deposited.
At first certain obstacles, which appeared almost insurmountable, stood
in the way of my obtaining the facilities necessary for the execution of the
work contemplated. But at length, thanks
to the cordial interest which the Right Hon. Herbert Gardner, one of our
Vice-Presidents, manifested in a project approved of by our Council, and the
courteous kindness of certain permanent officials of the Board over which he
presides, all difficulties were got over, and the first instalment of Essex
field-names now finds its place in the Society’s Transactions.
A few words explanatory of the
scheme adopted are, perhaps, desirable.
The first proceeding was to go through the Draft Awards of the forty-one
parishes contained in the Hundreds chosen, copying out all the field-names
other than those absolutely common-place – such, for instance, as Broadfield,
Longfield, Tenacres, and a few others, which occur by the score. The names excerpted, to which the Tithe Map
numerals were added, are in books which will ultimately be added to the MSS
Collections of the Society. Each name
was next re-copied on to a slip, with the addition of a number corresponding to
that assigned to be parish which it was found to occur. Duplicates having been eliminated, the slips
were arranged alphabetically, in which order they are now printed. By way of pendant to this explanation I must
add a word of thanks to my friend, Miss E M Allen, of Girton College, for the
help she very kindly contributed towards the somewhat tedious process of
re-copying and sorting.
It would be out of place to
attempt, here and now, to say much as to the names of which the list is
composed. They exhibit a remarkable
variety, the same name in precisely the same form rarely occurring more than
once over whole area under review. And
it must also be added that the variations, in some few cases, appear to be due
to the idiosyncracies of the original draughtsman or copyist, or of the person
who informed him, rather to essential differences in the names themselves. The explanation of sundry inaccuracies is
probably to be found in the fact that the Awards, which were for the most part
drawn up about half a century ago, were done in haste, and many names seem to
have been misunderstood, misspelt, and mangled, while others were
insufficiently authenticated. To give an instance or two: - the field which
figures as ‘Peerless’ [Loughton] should indubitably appear as ‘Spare Leaze’,
while ‘Luscious Mead’ [also Loughton] is really Lusher’s or Lushen’s mead; the
various ‘Readings’ [e.g. Little Hallingbury, Matching], ‘Reddings’ [Stapleford
Abbots, Great Hallingbury, Epping], etc., of which ‘redene’ is the earlier
form.
Of all the names not
immediately explicable three stand out as occurring more commonly than the
rest: they are Small Gains [e.g. Navestock, Abbess Roding, Bobbingworth, High
Ongar, Moreton], Rainbow Field [e.g. High Laver, Little Laver, Stondon Massey,
Harlow, Hatfield Broad Oak], and Perry Field [e.g. Stanford Rivers, Stapleford
Tawney, Fyfield, Magdalen Laver, Theydon Garnon]. Now ‘small’ is a word rarely
found as part of a field-name: the comparison is usually expressed by ‘little’
and ‘great’. But in the case of ‘Gains’, the latter affixes occur once and once
only, though ‘Gains’ itself never occurs without some qualifying word. Perry Field may or may not be the equivalent
of the modern Peartree Field [e.g. Theydon Mount, Bobbingworth, Magdalen Laver,
Latton, Great Parndon]. But perige or
peru is the Anglo-Saxon for pear-tree, and in one case I have come on a
‘Piryfield’ in a late 13th century charter relating to a parish in
which later on two Perry Fields are found. … Rainbow Field [e.g. Navestock,
Norton Mandeville, Abbess Roding, Beauchamp Roding, Stondon Massey] I hand over
to the conjectures of the ingenious, with the remark that Rainbow, like Perry,
also occurs as a surname.
Although many ‘Hop Gardens’ [e.g.
Shelley, North Weald, Moreton, High Laver, Epping] remain to bear witness to
the time when each vill drank its own brew, ‘Flex’ [Norton Mandeville] has in
three instances only survived to recall the Statute passed in Henry the
Eighth’s time, which rendered obligatory the cultivation of a certain amount of
hemp or flax in each parish.
A momentary glance at an
Ordnance Survey Map will serve to shew that the Commutation Awards by no means
include all the place-names of the parish; and many which are nowhere recorded
in print, are yet enshrined in old documents, or, in some instances, still live
on the lips of peasant-folk, preserved through the centuries by oral tradition. … Comment and criticism will of necessity by
more advantageously applied when, if ever, the lists for the whole county are
completed. [W C Waller completed and
published the work over nine parts from ‘old series’ Volume 5 to 9].
