Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Calders 1086 DB 1096–1101 Chest 1280 Dugd 13 ChFor 1348

• Calders in Wyrehale 1287 Court

• Kalders c.1350 Brownbill

• Caldelrs 1136–53 ChFor 1357

• Caldhers 1152 Brownbill

• Caldei 1182,1283 P

• Caldeie 1183 1283 Misc

• Caldeia 1184 P

• Caldey 1237 1724 NotCestr

• Kaldeya 1239,1240,1247 P

• Caldeya 1240 1289 ChFine

• Caldeye 1245 P 1351 BPR

• Caldea 1185,1186 P

• utraque Coldera 1240–9 Chestii489

• Galdei 1275 P

• Calday 1276 P

• Caldaye 1466 Orm2

• Calde 1308 IpmR 1547 MinAcct

• Caldye 1454 Sheaf

• Caldy 1553 1819 Orm2

• Caldeie 1766 Sheaf

• Caulday 1553 Orm2

• Cawldaye 1604 Sheaf

• Cauldye 1632 ib

• Cawedy 1606 Brownbill

• Chaldee 1646 Sheaf

• Calder 1724 NotCestr

• Caldley 1727 Sheaf

Etymology

The form Calders with its variants represents OE  cald-ears 'cold arse', a hill-name, v. cald , ears , cf. Calders, Colders WRY 6266, 2283. It would allude to the prominent hill on which lie Grange and Caldy, the two manors of Great Caldy & Little Caldy, cf. Mawer in Brownbill 312–13. The forms Caldei , Caldeie , Caldeia , Caldey , Caldeya , Caldeye , Caldy , Calday , and the form Calder (a ) represent respectively OE  cald -ēge and ON  kald-eyjar 'the cold islands', v. cald , kaldr , ēg , ey , cf. Ekwall DEPN.For a comparable substitution of ēg and ey , cf. WRY 7119–120 and Arnold 's Eye 300infra .

Mawer and Ekwall find the relationship of the various forms difficult. Mawer (loc. cit .) supposes a prudery about ears 'arse' at rather too early a date for such an attitude, and the spellings now available do not bear out his suggestion ersc 'stubble, arable'.Ekwall's explanation (DEPN) infers that Caldei , Caldeie , Caldeia , Calder (a ) is the original material and that Calders is a plural of Calder (itself a Scand pl. Kald-eyiar 'the (two) Caldys'), i.e. 'the two places called Calder '. But the form Calders is used of the individual manors of Great Caldy & Little Caldy. There is no evidence that the two manors mentioned as utraque Caldera 'each of the two places called Calder ' were collectively known as 'the (two) Calders '. It seems likely that utraque Caldera means 'each of the two parts of Calder '. Also, another relationship is possible, where an original form Calders might have been mistaken for a plural 'the two places called Calder ', and the new singular, Calder , could have been interpreted as ON  kald-eyjar , anglicized OE  cald -ēge , thus Caldei , Caldeie , Caldeia . Either way, there would be some doubt about how to prove which form is the starting point.

It would be simpler, but no more certain, to argue that the forms represent two distinct p.ns., one in -ears , one in -ēg , -ey , neither of which derives from the other, one of which replaces the other. To justify an etymology 'cold islands', since this does not fit the topography of Grange and Caldy townships, it would be necessary to suppose that the p.n. Caldei , Caldeie , Caldeia , Calder (a ) denoted a district including the Hilbre islands off the shore of West Kirby. West Kirby and Hilbre appear to have been included in one or other of the manors of Caldy in DB (Tait 46). A church on Hilbre was granted, as an appurtenance, with the manor and church of West Kirby, to the abbey of St. Évroul in the bishopric of Lisieux, by Robert de Rhuddlan before 1081, v. Ord iii26, France 223. St Peter's Church (Chester) was part of the same donation. If account be taken of the common manorial disposition of Hilbre and West Kirby and the two Caldys in a.1081 and in 1086 and of the suggestion in Brownbill 158 and Sagabook xiv 310 that this group of Robert de Rhuddlan's manors was the nucleus of the hundred of Caldy, then it is possible to suppose that Caldei , Caldeie , Caldeia , Calder (a ) would mean 'the district at the cold islands', denoting a territory including the islands of Hilbre and the opposing high ground on the Wirral mainland occupied by Grange, Caldy and West Kirby townships. A parallel case of a mainland village named after a coastline or offshore feature occurs at Tranmere 257supra . Within such a district, Calders would be the name of the mainland hill and the settlements upon it. After the separation of Hilbre and West Kirby from the original territory, Caldy would in fact consist only of the Calders part (i.e. the hill of Grange and Caldy), there would be no need to distinguish the part from the whole, and the p.n. Calders would fall into disuse.

This would explain the alternative forms of the p.n. It would also reveal another name, 'cold islands', for Hilbre 302infra .