Survey of English Place-Names

Etymology

Gray's Fm (SY 542979), cf. Greys Home Field 1840TA (Wytherstone), possibly to be associated with the family of Robert Grey 1401 FF, granted in that year land in Lower Kingcombe (one mile NE) in Toller P. par. infra together with a third part of the manor of Chilfrome (just to the E of Lower Kingcombe) also infra . On the other hand, this may well be one of the large and interesting cluster of commemorative names in this part of the par. incorporating references to important persons and events in the early 19th cent., in which case the allusion is to Earl Grey , Whig statesman and Prime Minister 1830–4, who carried the Great Reform Bill in 1832. For other names in the group, v. Regency Coppice 6″infra and several listed in f.ns. (a) infra , among them Bluchers Cl , Buonaparte Coppice , Elba Md , Melbourn Fd , Nelsons Cl , Reform Coppice , Russels Md , St Helena Coppice , Victoria , Waterloo and Wellington .