Culvert's Fm
Early-attested site in the Parish of Boreham
Historical Forms
- Richeham 1086 DB
- Richam, Rycham 1228 Ch 1402 Ct
- Rykhame 1523 MinAcct
- Coleworthe 1382 IpmR
- Culuerworthemede 1406 Ct
- Culver 1563 ERi 1589 Mowden
- Calwattes or Culverts 1768 M
Etymology
There is not much to go upon here, but the name raises the possibility of some OE significant word ric . The chief evidence for such is to be found in the name Lindrick (Nt), Lindric c. 1150 Danelaw Charters, in which the first element seems clearly to be OE lind , 'lime tree,' but cf. also Cookridge, Rastrick (PN WRY 50, 152) and possibly Askrigg (PN NRY 261). Middendorff (s. v .) suggested the possibility of a place-name element ric denoting 'strip' and the like, but his examples from OE charters do not bear the interpretation put upon them. beferic and doferic show the final ic found in several river-names (cf. RN 31–2 s. n. Beferic ), while Midderice is a bad form for Middehrycge (cf. the bounds of BCS 814 and 1009 as set forth by Grundy in The Saxon Charters of Somerset 216–24). The evidence is confined to ME name-forms and is given in full by Ekwall in RN (370–1). He shows that there was probably an element ric in OE denoting “stream, ditch, narrow road” and the like, possibly also “strip of woodland.” Cf. also reke , “edge of a wood,” earlier rik in NGN vii, 41. The name may therefore be a compound of this ric and ham(m). Later it was replaced by a manorial name commemorating the half-knight's fee held by Richard de Coleworde (1253 FF, 1266 Pat) of Culworth (Nth). For worth becoming ver cf. PN D Pt. i, p. xxxv. For the identification v. VCH i, 519.