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.

Woodyates, East Woodyates & West Woodyates

Major Settlement in the Parish of West Woodyates

Historical Forms

  • in publico loco qui dicitur at Wdegeate 859 ShaftR(S334)
  • in þare stowe þat is inemned at wudegate 870 15 ib
  • (to) wideyate 944–6 BCS817(S513) 14
  • ?Widamgate 959–975 Finberg(S1772)
  • besuðan wudigan gæte c.970 DurhamRitual(SurteesSociety140)
  • Odiete 1086 DB
  • Widiate 1199 FF
  • Wudiete 1199,1213 ib
  • Wdiate 1201 Cur
  • Wodiat(e) 1208 1213 ib
  • Wud(e)iat(e) 1213 1233 Cl
  • Wodiet' 1244 Ass
  • Wodeyate 1244,1288 1428 FA
  • Wodehyate 1244 Ass
  • Wodeyet(e) 1268 1428 FA
  • Wodyete 1288 Ass
  • Wodyate 1409 Cl
  • Wdehette, Wudehate 1372 ChrP
  • Wudegat(e) 1199 Cur 1244 Ass
  • Wudegeith' 1372 ChrP
  • Wodegat(e) 1199 Cur 1242 Ch 1325 Pat
  • Wdegete 1372 ChrP
  • Wudigat' 1244 Ass
  • Wudesate 1251 FF
  • Wodezete 1291 Tax
  • Wodezate 1340 NI
  • Wodeyats 1535 VE
  • Woodyates 1618 Map
  • East-Woodyates, West-Woodyates 1774 Hutch1

Etymology

'(At) the gate or gap in the wood', from wudu, widu and geat , the first el. apparently alternating with wudig 'wooded' in the form from Durham Ritual and perhaps in Wudigat ' 1244.There is mention of a wood here in 1251 FF. The gate or gap may have been at Bokerly Junction, where Bokerly Ditch, a late RB earthwork built across the Badbury Rings-Old Sarum Roman road, was later breached by the road from Blandford F. to Salisbury. Ekwall DEPN makes an alternative suggestion for the first el., the OE  pers.n. Widia , Wudga , Wudia found in Withington Gl 1186, but the topographical terms seem more likely in this name. The late appearance of -s in Woodyates is noteworthy; it would seem to have originally represented a pl. form, 'the (two) places called Woodyate '.