Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• a fulling mill 1617 Add

• Louds Mill(s) 1774 Hutch1 1841 TA

• Lead Mill 1811 OS

Etymology

Loud's Mill (SY 709903), a fulling mill 1617Add , Louds Mill (s )1774 Hutch1, 1841TA , Lead Mill 1811 OS, cf. pastur a qua voc ' Grayswick Ed 1 (1617) Add , Graswyk 1300 Ipm, lowdes ham 1551Ct , Lowdsffylde 1553 DorR, pasture then [Ed 1] knowne by the name Graiswicke now not to be found within the whole manor Jas 1LRMB , Loweds Field , Lowd (e )s Field 1607 Clegg, Grayswick (e ) now (e ) Lowdes fielde , Graiswick (e ) now (e ) Lowdes fielde , Graiswick (e ) now (e ) Lowdes feilde 1611DuCo , 1617Add , St ' Johns Lande de Dorchester 1615DuCo , certaine grounde called in auntient Recorde Greiswick latelie Lowdes feilde …in the tenure of John Churchill esq. under the name of St Johns Lande a certaine hospitall as is said in Dorchester 1617Add , Loudsfeilds 1650ParlSurv , Lowds Lds , Lowds Orchd 1841TA . Loud is a surname, cf. the plot granted to Thomas de Lude in 1304 Pat, v. hamm , feld . Gray - in the earlier Grayswick may be from grǣg 2 'a badger', but is probably a manorial affix; a family of this name has not been noted here so early, but cf. Grey's Bridge infra (also on R. Frome, ½ mile upstream), v. wīc 'dairy farm, hamlet'. St Johns Lande (according to 1617Add a name for only part of Lowdes feilde ) is so called from its possession by the hospital of St John in Dorchester, cf. Prior hospitalis Sancti Johannis Dorcestr ' un ' virgat ' terra Ed 1 (1617) Add , v. St John's Chapel supra .