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.

Whillimoor Foot

Early-attested site in the Parish of Arlecdon

Historical Forms

  • Welingesmora c.1140 StB
  • Welingmora c.1180 ib
  • Quelingmor(e) c.1250 ib
  • Welyngmore c.1360 ib
  • Whillyngmor 1447 ib
  • Whillimore al. Wyllymore 1559 FF

Etymology

The earliest forms may represent OE  *hwēoling . It is topographically probable that the name may be connected with certain rings, presumably of standing stones, which occur as le wheles in a late medieval perambulation of Whillimoor (StB 487). The meaning of the name is presumably place with wheels or stone circles'. The reference is not, we take it, to Whillimoor cheeses.