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.

Pepper Street

Early-attested site in the Parish of Wem

Historical Forms

  • Peper Street 1683,8 PR(L)

Etymology

No entirely convincing explanation is available. Dodgson notes the possibility of an allusion to dust on these roads, also that pepper is a dialect term for an itinerant pedlar or horse-dealer. Pepper Hill, one instance of which occurs in the enclave of Ch near Adderley, 8 miles N.E. of the Edstaston Pepper Street, may be a related name.

Places in the same Parish

Early-attested site

Other OS name