Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Hadlega 1121 AD464

• Hodlega 1155 SAC1,135

• Westhodleghe 1288 Ass 1361 Ipm

• Hotheleye juxta Grenested 1288 Ass

• Hothlegh 1327 SR

• Westhothleg 1347 Lewes

• Westhothle or Westhodelegh 1509 LP

• Westhedeleye 1290 FF

• Hoadley 1675 Ogilby

Etymology

In this name and in a good many others in the eastern half of the county we have as an element an OE  hāð found also in certain Kentish names as Hothfield, t. Hy 3 Ipm Hothfeld and Hoath in Patrixbourne, 1276 BM La Hothe . This word is frequently found in ME  field-names in Mid and East Sussex, and, both as noun and adjective, in the forms hoath (y ), hawth (y ), is very common in field-names in the Tithe Awards for Mid and East Sussex. It is clear that this word is related to OE  hæð, which is a masculine noun in OE, presumably of the i -declension.hǣð and hāð alike go back to pre-Germanic *koit , the root of Latin cētum as found in bu -cētum , 'pasture-land.' In Gothic the corresponding word háiþi is a feminine io -stem and so is ON  heiðr . We have however evidence, very kindly furnished by Dr Mansion, for a form with unmutated vowel in Low Franconian. He points out that in the present-day Flemish dialects there is distinction between heed , 'heath,' which is neuter, and heide , 'heath,' which is feminine (Cf. further Verwys and Verdam, Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek , s. v. heet , heide , and De Bo, Westvlaamsch Idioticon , 2nd ed. 1892, s. v. heed , heide ). The latter is the equivalent of the Gothic háiþi , with the correct representation of ai with umlaut in Dutch as ei , while the former shows the same diphthong without umlaut. He suggests that the un- umlauted form goes back to an a -stem haiþa -, of neuter gender, and that the numerous examples of het Heed , den Heet , ten Heede in De Flou's Woordenboek der Toponymie are a direct parallel to the English hoath -names, the forms het (nom. or acc.), den , ten (dat.) being fairly reliable proofs of the neuter.Good early evidence is difficult to find but Dr Mansion notes that Old Dutch Hedberga (Oud -Gentsche Naamkunde 204) points to haiþa - rather than haiþiō -, as also does the form heetvelde in 1227.