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.

Pegglesworth

Early-attested site in the Parish of Dowdeswell

Historical Forms

  • wæcgleswyrðe (sic for Pæcgleswyrðe) 981 KCD631
  • Peclesurde 1086 DB
  • Pecleswurdin 1221 Ass
  • Pecleswurth 1248 ib
  • Pechelesworth 1182 RBB
  • Pekeleswrd 1221 Ass
  • Pekelesworth 1287 FF 1362,1433 FF
  • Pekelisworthe 1535 VE
  • Pekilswoorth 1559 ADv
  • Pecklesworth 1648 Rec
  • Petheswrth (sic) 1287 QW
  • Pecchesworth 1299 RBB
  • Pegkeleswrth' 1287 Ass
  • Peg(e)lesworth, Pegglesworth 1327 SR 1591 ADv 1608 FF
  • Pettelesworthe 1354 Inq

Etymology

'Peccel's enclosure', v. worð , the single spelling in -wurdin being the Merc derivative worðign . The pers.n. is OE  Peccel , a form of Pæccel suggested for Patchway (Sx 309) and Paglesham (Ess 189).We should, of course, have expected a palatalised form Pech - from this pers.n. (as we have in fact in Patchway), but non-palatalised forms occur as in Paglesham, which also has the common voicing of -k (l )- (cf. Daglingworth 69supra for a similar voicing of -k (l )-).A shortened form of an OE  pers.n. like Peohtel , a diminutive of some such name as Peohtgils , Peohthelm , etc. which Ekwall assumes for Peckleton (Lei), would avoid some of the phonological as well as the etymological problems of OE  Peccel .