Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• (to) heal wicum 940 BCS762 c.1240

• (wood of) Halewik c.1060 KCD844 13th

• Haleuuike, Haleuuyke 1256 Dugdale

• Halewyk 1497 Chertsey

• Halwicke's-Wood 1711 Hearne

• The Hollicks 1816 LHRS

• Hollicks, Hollocks 1843 TA

Etymology

The name means 'farm in a nook of land', from healh and wīc .Five more examples of this compound have been noted in other county surveys. These are Holywick Bk 179, Holliwick BdHu 121, Halewick Sx 202, Hollick Sr 110, Halliwick Mx 100. Most of these have been rendered 'holy wīc', with occasional alternative suggestions of 'dairy-farm belonging to a hall', and 'wīcin a healh'. The Berks example is crucial, as it is the only one with a reliable OE spelling.Hollick Fm Sr is Haleuuik in BCS 563, but a number of spellings from this charter show post-Conquest influence. The Berks spelling heal wicum is consistent with derivation from healh ; and the medial -e -, -i -, -y - which occur in ME and ModE spellings for all the names, and which had led to rejection of healh and association of the first el. with the word holy , are probably intrusive vowels. Such vowels can be shown to develop between a consonant and a following -w - in words like periwinkle , pollywog , pilliwinks , periwig .

The situation of these six places is important for the precise interpretation of the compound. Unfortunately, it cannot be ascertained in all the examples, as the Bd and Mx instances are only known as street-names, and are not on the 1″ map. Of the four which can be located, three are in the corner of a parish. The Berks place is in the S.W. corner of White Waltham, Holywick Bk is in a pointed projection at the N. end of Medmenham parish, and Hollick Fm Sr, which was demolished for Brooklands motor-track, was in the S.E. corner of the parish of Chertsey. It is possible, therefore, that these are examples of healh used of land in the angle of an estate. Other instances of this usage are given under Bracknell 116. Halewick near Lancing Sx is more likely to contain healh in the sense 'valley'.