Survey of English Place-Names

Etymology

, cf. Warlot de Wat 'hil , Wat 'hilgote , Waterhilgote eHy3HarlCh , Waterhilgote , Waterhil Warlot Hy3ib , Wat 'hilgote 13ib , The Greate watter hille , The lesser watter hille 1587Yarb , Uttermoor watrilles 1543Anc ( ' outer moor ' ) , The Water Hills Close Meadow 1762Monson . Waterhill is derived from wæter and hyll , in which wæter is presumably used in the sense ' wet ' , v. also gotu ' a water-channel, a stream ' and warlot . The latter , common in north L , is defined by NED s.v. warlott , as ' some kindof waste or common land ' . However , the late Professor M.T . Löfvenberg , in a personal letter , doubted the meaning given there . Indeed , the three references quoted in NED , two of which are in fact from north L , give no clue at all to the meaning of the word and NED 's interpretation appears to be really a guess . The editors of NED associate the first el . of warlott with warland ' agriculturalland hend by a villein ' , that is OE  waru and Professor Löfvenberg pointed out that , among other meanings , it had the sense ' defence,protection, guard ' . If the OE  form of warlott was indeed *warhlot or the like , then etymologically it would seem to refer to a lot , a share or an allotment of land subject to some form of defence or protection . It seems likely that warlot should be associated with warland , as Dr John Insley suggests , drawing attention to YCh ii , p. vii , where the editor states “ Each carucate or bovate had a parcel of meadow appurtenant to it , assessed to geld and other burdens , and occasionally denominated “ warlot ” , possibly from this circumstance ” . A warlot would seem to have been a piece of land assessed to a specifically defined payment of geld .