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.

Hoylake

Early-attested site in the Parish of West Kirby

Historical Forms

  • Hyle Lake 1687 Brownbill 1690 Sheaf 1809 Brownbill
  • the Hyle-Lake 1751 Sheaf
  • Hylelake 1762 ib
  • Hilelake 1690 Assem
  • High Lake 1689 Sheaf 1698 Fiennes 1793 Brownbill
  • Highlake harbour 1689 Sheaf
  • Hylake 1709 Sheaf
  • Hoyle Lake 1796 Brownbill 1808 ib
  • Hoylake 1813 Brownbill
  • Hyle Sand 1687 Brownbill
  • Hoyle Sand 1757 Sheaf 1808 Brownbill
  • The Hoyle Sand 1796 ib
  • Hoyle Sands 1813 ib
  • Hoyle Bank 1806 Sheaf 1831 Bry
  • Highlake 1766 Orm2ii498
  • High Lake 1794 Brownbill
  • Hoylake 1806 HemII259
  • lacum de Hildeburghey que vocatur le Heypol 13 Chest 14

Etymology

This was the name of a roadstead, now silted up, off the north-west coast of Wirral, east of Hilbre, inside the Hoyle Bank (Hyle Sand 1687 Brownbill 315, Hoyle Sand 1757 Sheaf, 1808 Brownbill 61, The Hoyle Sand 1796 ib 57, Hoyle Sands 1813 ib 62, Hoyle Bank 1806 Sheaf, 1831 Bry, v. sand , banke ). It gave name to a hamlet, Highlake 1766 Orm2 ii498, High Lake 1794 Brownbill 58, Hoylake 1806 Hem II259, which grew up around an hotel built here for sea-bathers in 1792 (cf. Royal Hotel infra ). This hamlet, in Little Meols and Hoose townships, expanded in the nineteenth century until by 1882 (Orm2 ii498) it included those townships and Great Meols. It is now joined in the c.p. of Hoylake and West Kirby. The p.n. and that of the sandbank derive from hygel 'a hillock', ME  huyle , ModEdial. hile . No doubt the sandbank was named 'the Hile', i.e. 'the hill of sand', and the tide-lake inshore of it would be 'the lake at the Hile', v. lake . Metanalysis of Hile-lake would produce High -Lake .It is merely co-incident geography that this anchorage is probably lacum de Hildeburghey que vocatur le Heypol 13 (14) Chest, 'the lake of Hilbre which is called the High-pool', i.e. 'the deep pool', v. hēah , pōl 1 .