Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Welhou 1155–58 Ch 1334 Pat Hy2 RH 1460 Pat 1275 Inqaqd 1303 Pap 1316 1442

• Welhowe 1272 FF 1305 Cl 1328 Banco 1332 SR 1348,1354,1361 Pat 1368 Ipm 1373 Cl 1543 GrimsExtent

• Welhow 1288,1314 Ipm 1450 LLD 1471 GrimsCBi 1508 Willsi 1525 GrimsCLeet

• Welhogh 1314 Ipm

• Wellehou 1292 Ipm 1293 Pat 1293 RSu 1345 Pat 1349 Ipm 1392 Pat

• Wellehow 1289 Ipm

• Wellehowe 1365,1382 Cl

• Wellehogh 1314 Ipm

• Wellou 1322 Pat 1326 Ipm 1327 Cl 1366 GrimsCt

• Wellowe 1356 Pat 1359 Misc 1369 Pat 1371 Cl 1372 Misc 1375 Fine 1375 Peace 1397 Pap 1581 HMCRep

• Wellow 1400 Pap 1508 GrimsCBii 1511 GrimsFC 1522 GrimsCBi

• Wellow alias Welhow 1755 NW

• Welho 1477 Pat

• Welhoo 1517 ECB 1519 DV 1530 Willsii

• Wello 1477 Pat 1537 AOMB 1538 LPxiii 1566 Pat

• Welloo 1535 VEiv 1537 AOMB 1548 Pat 1552 FCP 1553 Pat 1613–15 MinAcct

Etymology

'The spring by the hill-spur' or 'by the mound', v. wella , hōh , haugr . According to Watson 8, there was a mound here (in 1901) called Abbey Hill (Abbey Hill 1825 Oliver) with “a spring or well at the foot”, which Oliver 30 himself describes. “The Abbey Hill measures ten acres, and is 2600 feet in length by 1600 feet in breadth and about 50 feet perpendicular”. The feature is clearly shown on Fig. 17.1 in R.W. Ambler, “The historical development of Grimsby and Cleethorpes”, Historical Perspectives : a Region Through the Ages , ed. S. Ellis and D.R. Crowther, 1990. Almost all the forms refer to the Augustinian abbey of Wellow and many are described as “by Grimsby”. The name survives as that of a district in Great Grimsby.