Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Wiche 1086 DB

• Wicham l.12 Wyg 1207 P e.13 BHosp 1282 Wyg 1317 1319 FA 1341 Wyg

• Wycham e.13 BHosp 1284,1296,l.13 Wyg 1351,1353,1519 et passim

• Wycham in Caudewell' 1519 ib

• Wichham 1282×91 ib

• Wikham l.13,1317 Wyg 1520,1521 et passim

• Wykham 1278 RGrav 1294 Nichols 1509 Deed 1516 Wyg 1531 1582 Terrier

• Wicam p.1250,l.13 Wyg

• Wycam p.1250,1271,1291,1294 1510 Rut

• Wykam l.13,1310,1317 Wyg 1382 Pat 1505,1519 Wyg

• Wicom l.13 ib

• Wikeham 1440 Wyg 1610 Speed 1719 LML

• Wykeham 1502 MiscAccts 1510 Rental 1620,1694 LML

• Wyckham 1524,1543 Wyg 1558 Pat 1567 CoPleas

• Wickham 1543 Wyg 1601 LibCl 1604 SR

• Wycombe 1811 Nichols 1846 White

Etymology

The place-name Wycomb represents the OE compound appellative wīc-hām, about 30 examples of which survive in place-names and field- names. Dr Margaret Gelling in two studies detailed below notes that three-quarters of known instances are situated directly on or not more than one mile from a major Roman road and that over half the examples are closely associated with Romano-British habitation sites, especially small towns. OE  wīc in this compound appears to be very early and to have a close connection with Lat  vicus , a term used by the Romans for the smallest unit of self-government in their provinces. Gelling observes that wīc -hām names tend to occur near RB sites in which later archaeological levels show no evidence of early Anglo-Saxon occupation and where sub-Roman survival seems particularly likely.Thus it is possible that wīc -hām was an OE term for a small RB town which survived without being swamped by Germanic settlers.Alternatively, it could have described an Anglo-Saxon settlement adjacent to a surviving RB  vicus or even an early Anglo-Saxon estate comprising the territorium of a former RB  vicus (cf. the later biscop - hām 'estate belonging to a bishop').

Wycomb fits the wīc -hām pattern in every respect. It lies roughly one mile south-east of the Roman road Margary 58a across the Wolds and one mile south of the important RB site at adjacent Goadby Marwood.Here, many RB burials have been discovered, as well as Roman buildings, wells, coins, brooches and other small finds, and also an area devoted to the smelting of ironstone, v. Roman Small Towns in Eastern England and Beyond , ed. A. E. Brown, Oxbow Monograph 52 (Oxford, 1995), 88.

It is worthy of note that Wycomb with Chadwell forms a land-unit in DB and retained its identity as a unit into the 19th century. Chadwell lies against the parish boundary and can never have been the principal township in the estate. Wycomb once lay at the centre of a compact land-unit until both townships were absorbed into Scalford parish.

Reference should be made to M. Gelling, 'English place-names derived from the compound wīchām ', Medieval Archaeology XI (1967), 87–104; reprinted with addenda in Place -Name Evidence for the Anglo -Saxon Invasion and Scandinavia Settlements : Eight Studies , ed. K. Cameron (Nottingham, 1975), 8–26; also to M. Gelling, Signposts to the Past , 3rd edn (London, 1997), 67–74, which extends her earlier study of place-names in wīc -hām .