Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Waltham 1086 DB c.1130 LeicSurv c.1150,a.1158 Dane Hy2 Rut l.12 GarCart 1204 BHosp

• Waltham super le Wolde e.14 BelCartA 1413 Inqaqd 1539 Deed

• Waltham on le Wolde 1540 MinAccts

• Waltham on the wowld 1576 Saxton

• Waltham on the would 1610 Speed

• Waltham on the Ould 1613 Polyolbion

• Waltham on the Wolds 1441 ISLR 1607 LML

• Waltham on the Woldys 1552 Rut

• Waltham on the Olds 1707 LML

• Waltam a.1158,c.1200,Hy3 Dane

• Waltamia c.1160 ib

• Valthona 1163 CartAnt

• Wautham 1201,1246(Edw1) CroxR 1271 Ipm Hy3 Crox Edw1 CroxR c.1316(e.15),1328(e.15) BelCartB

Etymology

'The forest estate', v. wald-hām. Rhona Huggins in a detailed study of all surviving examples of the name Waltham has demonstrated convincingly that the appellative wald -hām represented a royal (hunting) estate situated close to forest. That such names belong to the early Anglo-Saxon period is suggested by their distribution which is closely related to the Roman road system and is limited to those regions of the country settled earliest by the English. Names in wald -hām are confined to Kent, Sussex, Hants., Berks., Essex, Lincs. and Leics. That each example of wald -hām was a royal estate is indicated by its being held by the Church or by the king or by his deputy in the 11th cent., when each was an important vill of from 30 to 50 ploughs and among the largest in its county. Huggins also notes the close relationship between wald -hām and extensive meadowland, which was of great importance to a community dependent on oxen and horses. DB records 100 acres of meadow at Waltham on the Wolds. This township lies just over one mile from the major Roman road Margary 58a across the Wolds and is precisely on the line of the lesser Roman road, now called King Street Lane, which runs north-west from Roman Sewstern Lane, v. R. Huggins, 'The significance of the place-name wealdhām ', Medieval Archaeology 19 (1975), 198–201.

Oe (Angl ) wald in early usage denoted 'woodland, high forest land'.With the clearing of forest tracts, some of which were on high ground, it came in ME to mean 'an elevated stretch of open country or moorland'. In the modern name Waltham on the Wolds, both usages are evident. OE  (Angl ) wald 'high forest land' is compounded in Waltham (with wald > walt before the h of the generic), while later ME  wold 'elevated open country' is used in the suffix to describe the location of Waltham, i.e. ~ on the Wolds . Early spellings of Waltham with u for l are due to AN influence.