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.

Caidge

Early-attested site in the Parish of Southminster

Historical Forms

  • la Kage 1323 For
  • Cage 1351,1448 MinAcct 1368 Cl
  • Cage alias Cagys 1546 FF

Etymology

Caidge is la Kage 1323For , Cage 1351, 1448MinAcct , 1368 Cl, Cage alias Cagys 1546FF . OFr  cage used in the sense of 'an enclosed piece of land.' The first of these references is to a park.Cf. “a certyne parke grounde palid called the Cage with a dwellynge howse or lodge within the same” in Tonbridge (K) (now identified with Cage Fm (PN K 181)), 1533 AD v, and the Cage 1495 VCH iii, 230 in Wokingham (Berks). Cage is also commonly used of the village lock-up and is very common in the field-names of the county, usually in the name Cage Field but also in such names as Parish Cage .Cf. le Cage (in Thaxted) 1550FF .

Places in the same Parish