English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Fethelee

Early-attested site in the Parish of Stoke Lyne

Historical Forms

  • Feþan leag c.900 ASC s.a.587
  • (bosco de) Fethelee 1198 FF

Etymology

The second element is (a)h, 'wood.' The first is apparently OE  fēþa , a word found mostly in poetry and presumably archaic. It is impossible to determine whether it means 'band of foot soldiers,' 'foot soldier' or 'battle' (the last in Juliana 389) in this occurrence.It has been suggested by W. H. Stevenson (1902, EHR xvii, 637–8) and F. M. Stenton (Transactions of the Royal Historical Society xxii, 20 n) that the name actually commemorates the battle of 584.Stevenson thought it for this reason a temporary name, but Stenton suggests that it is very likely to have been carried down into historic times by local tradition. v. Introduction xviii-xix.

Places in the same Parish