Place Names

By Kate Pratt

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Place names can reveal a lot of history, although the true meaning can be surprisingly difficult to unravel.

Bishop Wilton

It is commonly accepted that the Wil element is from Old English wilde meaning ‘wild or uncultivated’, but there are other equally attractive possibilities:

1. Most of the other places called Wilton (Cumberland, Hereford, Norfolk) derive the first element from the Old English wilg meaning ‘willows’.
2. Wilton in Somerset is generally supposed to be near a well or spring, and come from the Old English wiell.
3. Wilton in Wiltshire is on the River Wylye, which derives from the Welsh gwil, a river name which is cognate with Old English wil, meaning ‘tricky or wily’, therefore a river liable to flood, needing watching.
4. Vil or Vella is a Celtic river name, and as the village Beck has no name of its own, it is possible that Vil was used as its name.

The ton element is less debatable, coming from the Anglo-Saxon, originally meaning an enclosure or even a fence, but soon used to refer to an enclosed homestead or even a town. It is by far the commonest suffix of place names in this area, there being no fewer than 119 in the East Riding – it is unmistakable evidence of Danish influence.

So we may conclude, not very controversially, that Wilton means an enclosed village beside a beck!

The village was referred to simply as Wilton in Domesday Book, and certainly until 1388. The Bishop prefix was in use by 1428, although it was sometimes used as a suffix, (for instance it appeared as ‘Wilton Bishops’ on Morden’s map of 1722). The reason for this usage was the fact that the Manor of Wilton was owned by the Archbishop of York, until 1544 when it passed to the Crown.

Putting Bishop Wilton into its local context, place names with the suffix –ham are usually earlier than those ending in –ton, and those ending in –thorpe are later still, and are usually considered to be subsidiary settlements, dependent on –tons and more evidence of Danish influence. The original meaning of -thorpe was ‘newly reclaimed land, new settlement’. Thus, we may conclude that Yapham preceded Wilton and Bolton, while Belthorpe, Gowthorpe and Youlthorpe were farms belonging to a mother village. The suffix –by as in Garrowby is from Old Scandinavian, meaning a ‘homestead’, and in this area is usually affixed to a Scandinavian personal name.

Hagworm Wood

Above the village lies Hagworm Wood.
The Hag element is probably from Old English haga (Old Scandinavian hagi) meaning ‘fence, or fenced enclosure’, though it may be from the Old Danish hag meaning a bog. The second element worm is undoubtedly wyrm from the Old English, meaning ‘a reptile or serpent or worm’.
Thus the probable meaning is an enclosed area where one might see snakes.

References:

Ekwall: ‘Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names’ (1964)
Nicholson: ‘Place Names of the East Riding of Yorkshire’ in The Transactions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society, Vol XXV (1926)