English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Barley Bread or Bottom Breach

Field in the Parish of Affpuddle

Historical Forms

  • 1838 TA

Etymology

Barley Bread or Bottom Breach(possibly a field usedfor barley, but perhaps a derogatory name for poor land, barley bread beinginferior to wheat bread as in Piers Plowman B text Passus VI lines 136–9, cf.Little Breach infra)