Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Monechet, Monuchetone 1086 DB

• Munek(e)heth, Munek(e)hrthe 1268 FF

• Munke(h)aid 1148–65 YCh1037–8

• Munkehaidhe 1192 ib

• Munkheyth 1246 Ass9d

• Munkhayt c.1295 Ext

• Muntcheatt 1174–9 Ch 1327

• Munecheatt 1175 YCh359

• Munchaiye (sic for Munchaiþe) 1175–90 Nost160

• Muncaic 1208 FF

• Monk(e)hagh 1379 PT

• Monk(e)hay 1379 1535 VE

• Monk(e)hey 1486 MinAcct

• Munkey 1557 Surv

• Mounckye 1605 FF

Etymology

Monk Hay Stile is near the Bramham boundary (1″ O.S. 97– 410405) and is the only surviving trace of DB Monechet which was a member of the manor of Bramham (cf. Monechet 86 supra ), but some early spellings identified with Spen Fm in Bramham (84supra ) also refer to Monk Hay. From the location of the latter and of Spen Fm Monk Hay was clearly the extensive tract of land about Bramham Park and Black Fen included in the north-western angle of the Great North Road and the Tadcaster-Leeds road; it was partly in Bramham, partly in Barwick. 'Monks' heathland', v. munuc , hǣð , partly replaced by ON  heiðr and influenced by haga , (ge)hæg 'enclosure'. The monks of Nostell had lands in Bramham (1126–9 YCh 1012 ff), but if the identification with DB Monechet , Monuchetone is correct, as it seems to be, the allusion is to an older and different group of monks.