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.

Bishop's Cleeve

Major Settlement in the Parish of Bishop's Cleeve

Historical Forms

  • æt Clife, into Clife, to Clife 769–85 BCS246 11th 889 ASChartxvi 11th 889–904
  • Clive, Cliue, Cliua, Clyve 11 Heming 1086 DB 1195 P 1209 Fees 1221 Ass 1232 Theok 1561 FF
  • Bissopes Clyve 1284 Episc
  • Clyve Epi', Clyve Episcopi 1287 Ass 1291 Tax c.1560 Surv
  • Bisshop(p)esclyve, Bisshop(p)isclyve 1355 FF 1438 Pat 1561 FF
  • Cleyve 1320 Ass
  • Clyve als. Cleeve 1426 IpmR
  • Cleve 1534 FF 1535 VE
  • Cleve Epi' 1535 VE 1540 AOMB
  • Bis(s)hop(p)es Cleve, Bys(s)hop(p)es Cleve, Bys(s)hop(p)is Cleve 1547,1561 FF 1564 Dep
  • Bisshoppes Cleeve 1621 PR

Etymology

Named from the steep escarpment of Cleeve Hill, below which the village stands, v. clif 'cliff, bank'; the lands granted to the monastery of Cleeve in 769–85 (BCS 246) in fact included Cleeve Hill. The later form Cleve comes from lengthening of ME  -ĭ - to -ē - in the open syllable of the OE  dat.sg. clife (v. Phonol. § 23). 'Bishop's' (Lat  episcopi ) because it was a manor of the Bishops of Worcester; the lands which had formerly belonged to the monastery of Cleeve were granted to the Bishop of Worcester in 889 (BCS 559), and there are many allusions in the references cited for the name to the Bishop's continued possession of the manor (1285 FA ii, 236, 1303 ib 252, etc.). Grundy 71 thought that Clife was the name of the monastery in BCS 246 and Timbingctun (infra ) the name of the vicus or village.

Places in the same Parish