Spaldwick
Major Settlement in the Parish of Spaldwick
Historical Forms
- Spalduice 1086 DB
- Spalduuic(c) 1086 InqEl c.1180
- Spaldewic(k) 1086 InqEl c.1180 Ch 1155 P 1329 1163,1167,1185
- Spalduic 1109 BM
- Spaudewyk 1209 For
- Spaldewyk, Spaldewik 1260 Ass 1285 FA 1327 SR 1330 FF 1428 FA
- Spaldinwike 1286 Ass
- Spaldingwik 1286 QW
- Spaldwycke 1316 FA
- Spaldewick 1326 Cl
- Spaldwyk 1554 BM
- Spaldicke 1583 FF
- Spalwick 1610 Speed
Etymology
It is impossible to carry the story of this name any further than Ekwall (PN in -ing 88–9), where he relates it to Spalding (L), Spaldington (Y), Spalford (Nt), earlier Spaldesford , Spalding Moor (Y) and the Spalda of the Tribal Hidage (BCS 297). The natural thing would perhaps be to relate all these names to some lost pers. name, but there is no other evidence for such in the Germanic languages, and Ekwall suggests that we have a lost river-name in Spalford, Spaldwick and Spalding, while in Spalding Moor and Spaldington we may have an actual settlement from Spalding itself. This river-name he takes to be derived either from OE spald , 'spittle, foam,' or an OE *spald , cognate with OGer spalt , denoting 'trench, ditch,' and specially applicable to the fen-land rivers. It should be noted in addition that the name in the Tribal Hidage refers almost certainly to the Spalding district, and as at least two other names in the Hidage are taken from river-names (cf. Gifla = Ivel and Hicca = Hiz) this identification slightly strengthens the case for a river-name Spald .