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.

Lashford Lane

Early-attested site in the Parish of Bessels Leigh

Historical Forms

  • (on) læcesford 956 BCS932 c.1240 KCD1283 985 c.1240

Etymology

Lashford Lane, (on ) læcesford 956 (c. 1240) BCS 932, 985 (c. 1240) KCD 1283 (evidently where the road crosses Sandford Brook, v. Pt 3), Lachford 1841TA , v. ford . The first el. might be either lǣce 2 'leech', or lǣce 1 'physician', the latter perhaps used as a by-name.v. also læc(c), læce 'stream, bog'. Professor Löfvenberg observes that læce is likely to have been a masc. noun, so that it is a possible first el. here. Lashford Lane crosses Sandford Brook just before it flows into a marshy valley, and this feature could have been called læce .