Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Cogeltone 1086 DB

• Cogelton 1355 ChRR

• Congun' c.1200 AddCh

• Congulton c.1262 Dav 1498 AddCh

• Congultone 1465 Comb

• Congilton E1 JRC 1281 Court

• Congelton 1281 Ch 1433 ChRR

• Congletone 1295 Lacy

• Congleton 1322 Pat

• Congleton apon Dane c.1536 Leland

• Congleton or Congerton 1621 Orm2

• Congletun 1347 Eyre

• Congletonne 1544 Sheaf

• Conglton 1318 AddCh

• Connkelton' 1307 Eyre

• gowngulton c.1492 Dow

• Con(g)woton 1505 Sheaf

• Congerton 1547 Tab 1553 Sheaf 1558–79 ChancP 1596 Sheaf 1621 Orm2 1629 Earw 1690 Sheaf

• Conglington 1694 Sheaf

• Conghton 1819 Orm2

Etymology

A difficult name. The final el. is tūn 'a farmstead, an enclosure'.Ekwall (DEPN) suggests a first el. related to the PrGerm  stem *kang - found in ON  kengr (< *kangi ) 'a bend', kǫngull 'a cluster (of grapes, etc.)', which he associates with Congham Nf. Wallenberg PNK 336 derives the first el. of Conghurst K, from the same stem, and suggests that the el. cung - means 'a turning, a bend'. Congleton town was formerly skirted by a great bend of the R. Dane. The place is in a hilly district, however, and the name could be analogous with Conkhulle 1400–5 PremIt (356–7, where Bruce Dickins suggests Cank Wo), 'a steep, rounded hill', v. canc , hyll , cf. Wa 292–3, Hrt xxxviii, 112. The development of Congleton would then be OE  *canc-hyll > ME  *conk-hull , with reduction of the final syllable in unstressed position (LMS I 1 48), a > o before n (although a few Cang - spellings would have been expected), voiced -ng - from -nk - by inversion of the more usual unvoicing -ng - > -nk - (Jordan § 193, § 178 n.2; although -nk - > -ng - is usually supposed a feature of the SE dial. of ME , and the -nk - spelling appears only once), cf. Connkelton beside Gowngulton . The p.n. would mean 'farm at Cankhill , Conkhill '. This could refer to one of the big hills in the district, The Cloud 291supra and Congleton Edge infra , or more particularly to the round-topped hill at the west end of the town, 110–850625, near The Mount infra .