Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• pasturis vocatis Bellyfaxe 1538 Riev

Etymology

This name is of peculiar interest as apparently it contains the same final element as Halifax (YWR). This, as Mr Goodall (PN SWY s.n.) suggests, is OE  feax 'hair,' used of '(a place covered with) shrubs and rough grass,' a meaning paralleled by Norw  dialect faks 'coarse-grass' and South German fachs 'poor mountain grass.' This is probably the meaning also in OE  to feaxum (BCS 880). The material is insufficient to allow of any explanation of the first element.