Waresley
Major Settlement in the Parish of Waresley
Historical Forms
- Wedreslei(e), Wederesle 1086 DB
- Weresle(a), Wereslai c.1130 StNeot Hy3 P 1169 BM 1193–8 FF 1200 Fees333 1220 Ass 1227,1291 Cl 1289 FA 1303,1316 Ipm 1323 Cl 1330,1378,1389 FA 1485 FA 1533 VE 1535
- Waresle(g) 1199 Cur 1273 Ipm 1286 FF 1309 Orig 1316 FA
- Werisleg 1224 FF
- Wersle(y) 1299 BM 1351 FF
- Werisley, Werysle(y) 1323 Cl 1327 SR 1340,1425,1484,1549 FF
- Wyrseleye al. Wersleye 1323 Ipm
- Worsle 1377 Cl 1384 BM
- Wyersley c.1400 Linc
- Waresl(e)y 1435 ADi 1496 Ipm
- Wheatesley c.1540 Linc
- Weyrysley 1554 FF
- Werisley al. Werysley 1571 FF
- Warseley 1574 BM
- Waresley al. Warslye 1592 FF
Etymology
Almost certainly we should not attach too much weight to the DB form here. There is some evidence for an OE pers. name Weder (cf. Skeat on Wetheringsett (Sf) in PN Sf 85), but it is impossible to believe that the d could have disappeared so completely or that if it had ever really been in the name the phonological development would have been what it was. The DB form is best regarded as a scribal error, probably due to a misreading of an æ in the original returns. In late OE script the e of this combination occasionally rises far above the line so that æ might by uninterested copyists be read as ed . Such a confusion would be made easier by the existence in the neighbouring county of Cambridge of a Hundred-name Wederlea , with which the compilers of the Huntingdonshire DB may well have been familiar. If the DB form may be left out of consideration, the name may be regarded as derived from OE Wǣres - leage (v. leah ), Wǣr being a shortened form of one of the numerous OE pers. names in Wǣr -, found also in Waresley (Wo), which is Wæresleage in BCS 362, and has later forms just like those of the Hunts p.n. The same name occurs in Warwick, and in Warsop (Nt).