Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Mowl 13 Dav

• Mowel c.1270 Dav

• rocha de Mowel 1280 AddCh 1320,1330 BW

• Mowell 1298 Orm2

• Moul' 1313 BW

• Moule 1631 AddCh

• Mole 1437–68 1657 BW 1680,1692 ib

• the Mole 1720 ib

• Molehelle 1320 ib

• Mole Hill (or Mole Copp) 1692 ib

• Mowhul 1286 AddCh

• Mowhull 1322 1329 BW

• Mouhul e14 AddCh 1313,1321 BW 1317 AddCh

• Mouhull 1342,c.1360 BW

• Mowehul 1374 ib

• Molle 1524 AddCh

• Molle alias Moolcop 1647 BW

• Mowle-coppe 1621 Orm2

• Moolcop, Mol Copp 1647 BW

• Mole Copp 1692 ib

• Mole Cop, Mole Cop Hill 1819 Orm2

• Mowcop Hill 1656 ib

• Mow Cop 1831 Bry

Etymology

'Hill with, or like, a heap or stack', from mūga 'a stack, a heap, a mound' and hyll , with copp 'a hill top', and, again, hyll . The Mow may have been an outcrop or a cairn, cf. Old Man of Mow infra . The hill gives name to a hamlet in Odd Rode, and to Mow Lane infra , but extends along the St border into Moreton cum Alcumlow and Newbold Astbury townships. It appears to have had a beacon on it in 1329, v. Orm2 iii47, AddCh 37046, Sheaf3 29 (6482), cf. Balgreuemor infra . The form rocha de Mowa in DEPN from BM is an error.