Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Vlestorp 1086 DB

• Olestorp 1190 P John BM 1243 Fees 1261 RGrav l.13(p),13 Goodacre

• Olesthorp(e) 1233 Fees Hy3 RBE 1278 Ipm 1414 LCDeeds 1424,1440 Pat

• Olsthorp(e) 1231 Cur 1285 FA 1369 Ipm

• Holestorp 1129×46 France 1236 Fees

• Holesthorp 1285 FA

• Olvestorp 1278 Ipm

• Oulesthorp 1325 WoCart 1449

• Oulsthorpe 1429 Cl

• Ulvesthorp(e) 1285 Abbr 1311 Banco

• Ulvesthrope 1610 LML

• Ullesthorp(e) 1278 Cl 1306 Banco 1428 FA 1541 Ipm 1622 LML

• Ullisthorpe 1524 Ipm

• Ullesthropp 1631 LML

• Ulsthorp(e) 1439,1453 Pat 1535 VE 1610 Speed

• Ulstropp 1627 LML

• Wollesthrop alias Ollersthrop 1512 BM

• Wolstroppe, Woulstropp 1536 AAS

Etymology

'The outlying farmstead belonging to a man called Ulf, v. þorp . The ON  masc. pers.n. Ulfr (ODan  Ulf ) is an original by-name 'wolf. It was common in Norway, Denmark and Iceland throughout the medieval period. Spellings with initial o are due to AN substitution of o for u (v. Feilitzen §17); occasionally o with prosthetic h .

With the exception of Ullesthorpe, Bittesby and Catthorpe, the township names which line Watling Street and those to its north-east in this region are predominantly English in origin. Ullesthorpe and Bittesby parishes appear once to have been a single land unit from which the small parish of Bittesby was later carved out. Ullesthorpe, which presumably was originally a dependent of Bittesby, now has a narrow reach of land to its west which runs to Watling Street. It is in this general area that the lost dunninc wicon of the Claybrooke Anglo-Saxon charter of 962 seems to have been situated. (For discussion of this name, v. note 5 to An Anglo-Saxon Woodland Estate at Claybrooke, appended to Claybrooke Parva parish names supra ). Whether the Ullesthorpe/ Bittesby land unit was originally that of a wīchām related to Romano- British Venonis is uncertain but a direct route, principally as a pathway, still runs from Ullesthorpe through Claybrook Parva parish to the High Cross site of Venonis . Although clearly Ullesthorpe in name is a latecomer when compared with Bittesby, whether it lies on a former Anglo- Saxon habitation site is unknown. It is worthy of note that while Ullesthorpe has both Scandinavian specific and generic, Bittesby's specific is English and that of Catthorpe is a feudal affix, all of which would indicate only slight Scandinavian settlement hereabouts.