Whissendine
Major Settlement in the Parish of Whissendine
Historical Forms
- Wichingedene 1086 DB
- Wyssingden(e), Wissingden(e) 1265 Pat 1297 Ass 1343 Cl
- Wisingheden 1266 For
- Wyssenden(e), Wissenden(e) 1203,1212,1214 Cur 1297 Cl 1453 Fine 1610 Speed
- Wissendena 1176 P
- Wyssinden', Wissinden' 1238 RGros 1349 Ipm
- Wyssynden c1291 Tax 1318 Pat 1498 Ipm
- Whittsonden 1491 ISLR
- Whytsondyne 1506 Nichols
- Whitsondine 1613 LML
- Whitsendine 1627 ib
- Whitsundine 1629,1719 ib
- Whyssendyne, Whissendyne 1539 MinAcct 1561 FF
- Whissendine 1695 Map
Etymology
This place-name is based on OE Hwicce but whether Hwicce here is the well-known major folk-name or an unrecorded personal name derived from it is uncertain. If the DB form of the p.n. is significant, then we have as the prototheme a minor folk-name *Hwiccingas 'the people of a man called Hwicce'. But surviving spellings also allow a likelier original *Hwiccena-denu 'valley of the Hwicce'. The name Hwicce , be it the folk-name or a pers.n., appears to survive elsewhere in the parish in the late-recorded Wichley Leys, v. f.ns. (a) infra . Hwicce occurs also in the name of the early Rutland hundred of Witchley (v. Witchley Warren) and in nearby Whiston Nth, some twenty miles to the south. These p.ns., situated in such close proximity, whether based on a pers.n. or on the folk-name Hwicce , suggest that the Anglo-Saxon Hwicce, later centred in Worcestershire, had an early presence in the Rutland region, v. Gl 442 ff. The village lies near a Roman road which ran westwards from the important Romano-British settlement at Thistleton to Syston Lei on Fosse Way. Thus the presence of an early folk group of the Hwicce here in the north-west of Rutland is perfectly acceptable and Roman pottery from the parish indicates that there was some pre-Germanic settlement in the neighbourhood.Witchley Warren in Edith Weston is also close to a Roman road.
The early spellings for Whissendine show ch > ss due to AN influence; hence we have either 'the valley of the Hwiccingas' or 'the valley of the Hwicce', v. -inga-, denu .