Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Wriman ford 975 BCS1312 11

• Wrimeford 1240–50 AddCh

• Wrymeford 1354 Chamb

• Wrymefforde 1392 AD

• Wrymeforde in le Wrymehill 1505 ChRR

• Wrymhill in Wrymford 1517 ib

• Wrynehull 1225 Cl 1404 MinAcct 1442 ChRR

• Wrynehull alias Wryneford 1527 ChCert

• Wrynehill 15 Rich 1454 AddCh 1503 ChFor 1603 Surv

• the Wrynehill 1550 AD

• Wrynhull 1340 ChFor 1378 Eyre

• Wrynhul 1513 Sheaf

• Wrynhill 1589 AD

• Wrinhull 1386 Chol

• Wrine Hill 1552 AddCh

• Wrinehull 1588 AD

• Wrinehill Bridge 1831 Bry

• Rinehill 1698 Chol

• Wryme 1299,1308 Ipm 14 AD 1342 Eyre 1430 Cl 1452 AD

• le Wryme 1404 MinAcct

• the Wryme 1563 AD

• le Wrineford 1322 Ipm

• Wryneford 1364 AD

• Wrynehull alias Wryneford, Wrynehill alias Wryneford 1527 ChCert 1589 AD 1686 Chol

• Wryneforde 1404 MinAcct

• Wrynhill alias Wrynefourde, Wrynefourde 1558 AddCh 1582

• Wrynford 1517 ChRR

• Wrymehille 1418 Cl

• the Wrymehill, le Wrymehill, Wrymehill 1486,1496 AD 1492 AddCh 1505 ChRR

• le Wryme Hull 1429 AD

• le Wrime Hull 1486 ib

• Wrymhill 1481 ChRR 1515,1531 AD

• Wrymhill in Wrymford 1517 ChRR

• Wrymhull 1518 Plea, AD

• Whrymhylle 1492 Chol

• le Wryme Syche 1429 AD

• le Wryenhyll 1550 AddCh

• The Wrynque 1564 AD

• Worme-hill 1621 Orm2 1656

Etymology

'Ford, hill, bridge and watercourse at The Wryme ', from ford , hyll , brycg and sīc , with a p.n. theme appearing in 1299 as Wryme , the name of the whole district, cf. The Rimes infra . Wrinehill village is partly in Betley St. Wrinehill Hall, Wrinehill Mill and Wrinehill Wood are in Madeley St. Wrinehill (110–7547) is named from its position on a slight ridge between Cracow Moss and Checkley Brook. Wrinehill Bridge (110– 755466), probably the site of the ford, crosses Checkley Brook at the county boundary. Wrinehill Hall and Wrinehill Mill (110–753460) are in a low- lying position beside R. Lea. Wrinehill Wood (110–750450) lies between the 300 ft and 400 ft contours, half a mile south of, and from 50 to 100 ft higher than the hall, le Wryme Syche alludes to some water-course running into Cracow Moss (110–7447). The Wrynque was a pasture at Ravenshall in Betley St, but it may not be pertinent here. Ekwall (DEPN) suggests that Wryme is an old name for Checkley Brook or the hill at Wrinehill, and rejects the proposal in Duignan 176 of an OE  pers.n. Wrim (a ) for Wriman ford . But the tract called Wryme appears to have been all the low-lying land about the confluence of Checkley Brook (from Heighley St) and R. Lea (from Madeley St), about 110–750460. These streams are deflected from their westward course by the high ground at Randilow infra (110–7446), to run south-westward to 110–744456 where they resume their line. It seems very likely that this deflection gives rise to the name. Ekwall derives the theme appearing as Wriman -, Wryme , Wrime , Wryne , Wrine , from the stem wrīg - of the OE  verb wrīgian 'to tend, go forward, bend' (cf. wrēo and ModE  wry ) with the PrGerm concrete-noun forming suffix -ma (n ) (Kluge §88). This could produce an OE  form *wrīma 'a bend', whence a p.n. *Wrīma , *(æt ) Wrīman , '(at) The Bend', of which the gen.sg. would be represented in Wriman ford , and which would develop naturally into ME  Wryme , Wrime . The Wrine , Wryne forms, with n for m , may be due to scribal confusion, the interchange of nasals in final position, or the influence of the inflexional -n of the dat.sg. in *(æt ) Wrīman or of the gen.sg. in Wrīman -compositions.

Another explanation of Wryme is offered in LCHS 119, 12 where the name is taken as analogous with the of wryoheme of BCS 606 (v. EPN s.v. wrēo , DEPN s.n. Wrington So), which is from hǣme 'dwellers at', with the r.n. Wring, (OE  *wrīo -ing from wrīo and -ing 2 ). This attempt to derive the Ch and St p.n. Wryme from an OE  *wrīohǣme , 'dwellers at the twisting-place', or 'at the bend(s)', must be forsaken in the face of criticism, that the name appears as Wriman in Wriman ford BCS 1312, an early eleventh-century MS., a form which is hard to reconcile at that date with the morphological changes required by a hǣme compound.