Chicksands
Major Settlement in the Parish of Chicksands Priory
Historical Forms
- Chichesane 1086 DB
- Chikesham 1152–8,1155 NLC
- Chi(c)chesant 1156,1158 P
- Chichesand 1159 P
- Chikes(s)ant 1161 P 1196 FF 1203 Cur 1237 Cl 1244 FF
- Chichessand, Chichesham 1162 P
- Chiksond 1163–79 BHRSi.118
- Chik(k)essand 1185 P 1276 Ass
- Chikesand c.1190 Warden c.1230 Fees10 1198
- Chikes(s)ond, Chykes(s)ond 1202 Ass 1220 LS 1297 SR 1310 Cl 1316 FA 1325 Cl 1346 FA 1361,1385 Cl
- Chikes(s)aunde 1227 Ass 1232,1236 FF 1244 Cl 1247 Ass 1285 Ch 1302 FA 1316 HMCVariv
- Chiksaund 1227 Ass 1273 Cl
- Chikesaunt 1240 Ass
- Chikesend 1242 Fees887
- Chijkesond 1250 Fees
- Chikesonden(e) 1287,1307 Ass c.1370–1420 Linc
- Chiksanden 1287 Ass
- Chikesand Dene c.1300 Linc
- Chikeshanden 1307 Ass
- Chikesaundene 1317 HMCVariv
- Chiksand 1327 Cl
- Chiksond, Chyksond 1359,1386 Cl 1400 CS
- Chixham 1388 Cl
- Chiksonden c.1390–1400 Linc
- Chikessounde dene 1428 FA
- Chyxsond 1457 Ipm
- Chickson 1655 NQi
Etymology
The suffix is the ordinary word sand . The soil here is sand (VCH ii. 271). The first element is an OE name Cicca which occurs again in Chickney, Essex (DB Ciccheneia ). A variant of this name, with palatalised second consonant, is found in Chicheley (PN Bk 33), and a Latinised form Cichus (Redw 38) is recorded. Here we have an unpalatalised form. The forms with suffixed -en (e ) which appear towards the end of the 13th cent. are difficult. Probably they point to an alternative dat. pl. form in -sanden (OE sandum ). Such forms seem peculiarly common in Beds, cf. Flitton, Ion, Fielden supra 148, 151, 162. The form with Dene in the Lincoln Registers might be a piece of folk-etymology, but it is unlikely in so conservative and highly formal a series of records as a Bishop's register. It is however possible that this and similar forms should be compared with the curious form Wicumbedene for High Wycombe found in the earliest Pipe Rolls of Henry ii. A medieval use of dene , of unexplained origin, to denote a district dependent upon or annexed to a place is not impossible. It seems indeed to have survived in the name Taunton Dean for the great manor of Taunton.
It is of course conceivable that there was a form Chikesanddene with the ordinary word dene (v. denu ) suffixed, but there does not seem to be a sufficiently well-marked valley here to make such a new development likely, though in the Warden Cartulary (19 b ) we have mention of a Grenedene in Chicksand.
The whole name means 'Cicca's sands.'