Toponymy, the study of place names, is a search for origins. Many names are old, given by the first settlers and they mean, or meant, something. They have been described as ‘linguistic fossils’. Language changes over time. Meanings get lost.
English place names have been studied since the eighteenth century, when antiquarians first became interested in local history. The task requires skills which few possess, not least the ability to read medieval manuscripts and knowledge of the older languages that Norman scribes rendered into Latin.
In 1866 Judge W H Cooke proposed two alternative meanings for Herefordshire ‘ley’ place names: ‘untilled ground’ or ‘a manor’. In 1916 the Reverend A T Bannister suggested ‘a meadow’. Today, neither is thought to be correct.
Place name studies were put on a more secure footing with the foundation of the English Place-Name Society, in 1923. The society has, so far, published ninety-six volumes explaining the origin and meaning of place names. Gloucestershire is covered by four volumes but, as yet, there are none for Herefordshire. In the meantime, we have the benefit of the ‘Dictionary of English Place Names’ by A D Mills and ‘Herefordshire Place Names’ by Bruce Coplestone-Crow.
Many places are first recorded in the Domesday Book, compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. So it is with The Lea, which appears as Lecce.
It has long been known that the Norman scribes had difficulty with those Old English words, which used sounds not present in Norman French. Perhaps this is an example. Mills suggests that ‘Lecce’ can be identified with the Old English ‘leah’, a clearing (in woodland). So too does Coplestone-Crow, who finds parallels elsewhere. It is written as ‘Leche’ in the mid-twelfth century and as ‘La Le(e)’ in several thirteenth century documents, from which it comes down to us as ‘The Lea’.
So far, so good, but The Lea is named ‘Lacu’ in a document dated 1201. Bruce Coplestone-Crow writes that this is ‘erratic and presumably erroneous’. Mistake or not, it does recur, mainly in documents relating to the Forest of Dean, throughout the thirteenth century. Lacu is an Old English word for a stream. This has led to the suggestion that The Lea might be named not for a clearing in the woods but for the Rudhall Brook, which flows through the village. But, if the identification of Lecce with Leah is correct, then Lacu must be scribal error.
There is no castle at The Lea, so how did Castle End get its name? There was a castle at Eccleswall, less than a mile to the north, held by the Talbot family, lords of one of the two medieval manors of Lea. This was the end of The Lea nearest to the castle. Perhaps the explanation is as simple as that.
And what of Lea Line? The name has nothing to do with ley lines (discovered or invented in 1921) or the Gloucester to Hereford railway (completed in 1855), which ran through a tunnel beneath. It is much older than either. The ‘Line’ element is probably derived from ‘hlinc’, an Old English word for a ridge, so the name means something like ‘the place on the ridge at Lea’ and it may have been in use for a thousand years or more.
David Mullin