English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Staple Hundred

Hundred in the County of Wiltshire

Historical Forms

  • Staple, Stapla hundred 1086 ExonDB
  • Stapele 1187 P
  • Hundred de Stapele 1196 Cur 1198 Abbr
  • Stapel 1255 RH 1259 Ass 1297 Ipm
  • Stapelee 1275 RH
  • Stapele 1316 FA
  • Steeple Piece (c. 1840 TA)

Etymology

From OE  stapol, 'post, pillar.' The site of the Hundred meeting-place must have been in Purton, for we have reference to Staple Cross Way in Purton (1631 WIpm). Possibly the name is preserved in Steeple Piece (c. 1840TA ), a field just to the north of Purton Church.There was another stapol further west, on the parish boundary, called le Westapele (BCS 279).

Parishes in this Hundred