Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• se wude þe hatte pænge 957 BCS994 13th

• Paenge c.1230 AddCh

• Paynge 1396 BM

• Penceat 1067 Cottvi,3

• Pange 1204 FF c.1230 BM

• Penge 1206 Cur

• Pengewode 1472 IpmR

• Peyng 1219 FF

• Peenge 1308 BM 1481 Pat 1483 IpmR

• Pennesgrene 1562 Recov

• Pensgreene 1610 Speed

Etymology

This is a Celtic name, as first suggested by Ekwall (PN in -ing 161), from the British words corresponding to Welsh pen , 'head' and coed , 'wood.' Cf. Penquit (PN D 272). It should be noted that the form Penceat is really the oldest form that we have, for Pænge is from a late copy of the charter of 957, in which the names have been much altered from their original forms.The dropping of the final syllable is curious. The normal development would be to Penchet . This would seem to have been mistaken for a Norman-French name with the diminutive suffix -et , found in some place-names in their ME form (cf. IPN 94). The suffix was dropped as in Trunch (Nf), DBTrunchet , and then (or possibly at an earlier date) Pench became Penge . For ch > ge we may compare the development of OE  hlinc , ME  linche to ling (e ), v. Ekwall op. cit. 29–30 and Stallenge (PN D 534), Marledge (ib. 354), Prustledge (ib. 79).

Penge was originally a wood or swine pasture, 'seven miles, seven furlongs and seven feet in circumference' (BCS 994), attached to the manor of Battersea, and it remained a detached part of Battersea parish until 1888, when it was transferred to Kent.

Anerley, a part of Penge, is a modern name. It is derived from the Scottish word anerly , 'solitary, lonely,' the name given to the first house built on this part of Penge Common by William Sanderson, a Scotsman. He offered the Railway Company a part of his property without charge, provided a station should be made and should be named Anerley. Kelly's Directory for 1859 mentions Anerley Station, “but there is no place of that name” (Hodgson, Notes on the History of Penge , 17, 18).