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.

Sleight Barn

Early-attested site in the Parish of Quenington

Historical Forms

  • Slaytlane 1754 EnclA

Etymology

Sleight Barn, 1830 M, Slaytlane 1754EnclA . The term sleight , Gl dial. slait , sleight 'a pasture, a sheep-walk' (EDD s.v.), occurs several times in the sheep-rearing parts of the Cotswolds; it is from an OE  slæget 'sheep-pasture' (which is fully discussed by M. T. Löfvenberg, Studier i mod. språkvetenskap xvii, 87–94); it occurs as a local appellative for cattle-walk in pecudum cursum anglice a sleyte (1401Tetb T 1, 6).