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.

Kingstag, Kings Stagg Copse

Early-attested site in the Parish of Lydlinch

Historical Forms

  • Kyngeslake c.1325 GlastE
  • Kingestake 1337 DorR

Etymology

Kingstag, Kings Stagg Copse (ST 725106), Kyngeslake (for Kyngestake ) c.1325GlastE , Kingestake 1337 DorR, 'king's boundary stake', v. cyning , staca . The first form is a point in the 14th cent. bounds of Buckland Newton Hundred; moreover, as pointed out by Fägersten 207, the par. boundaries of Lydlinch, Pulham and Haselbury Bryan meet at Kingstag Bridge here (in Pulham par. q. v. supra ), and the boundary stake must be that referred to in the medieval bounds of Blackmoor Forest (Hy 3 (14) Cerne) as ad truncum qui stat in tribus divisis . For the association of this place, through folk etymology, with the legend of the white hart, v. Blackmoor Forest & Blackmoor Vale supra .