Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Geneshale 1086 DB

• Gnodweshal, Gnodeshall 1199 Ass

• Gnowesala 1140 MRA

• Cnoushale 1223 Bracton

• Gnoushala 1230 Ch

• Gnowshale c.1140–50 StCart

• Gnow(e)shal(e) c.1149to1206 MRA 1205 P 1224 StoneCh 1240 FF 1437 1271 For 1452 Pat

• Gnouheshale 1323 CoramR

• Gnou(e)shale c.1181–4 StCart 1189 MRA 1222 Ass 1223 Bracton 1230,1290 Ch 1285 Ipm 1296 CoramR 1332 SR 1332 Pap 1343 FF 1401 Pat

• Gnoushal' 1203 Ass 1223 Cur 1332 SR

• Gnowsale 1348to1363 Pap 1387to1428 Pat

• Gnousale 1291 Tax 1299to1350 Banco 1308 Ass 1320 Ipm 1327 SR 1428 FF

• Gnoshale 1227 Ass 1307 GDR

• Gnos(se)hal(le) 1242 Pat 1541 LP

• Gnousal c.1255 RH

• Gnowsall 1462 FF 1526

• Gnossal 1222 Ass

• Knoushalla 1321 Inqaqd

• Knoshale 1414 Cl

• Knowshall 1638 PenkridgeParReg

• Know(e)sal(l)(e) 1296 Ipm 1491 Pat 1575 FF

• Knos(s)all 1562–66 Harl 1597 FF

• Nosall 1643 StComm

• Gnosall 1610 Speed

Etymology

This is a difficult name and Ekwall's suggestion in DEPN that the pers.n. might be from OE  gnēaþ 'niggardly' used as a nickname is not entirely a happy one. He himself notes the absence of early spellings with a which might have been expected. There are however examples in the St p.ns. of initial gn - occurring for cn - under Anglo-Norman influence especially before n. Thus Cannock supra 56 is not infrequently written Ganno (c )k under such AN influence. See IPN (i) 114 Pt 10 where Zachrison quotes Gnolla for Knolle in Wo. Cambridge OE  Grantanbrycg would also be a parallel example. The C - or G - in Gnosall would be lost at a very early period and can therefore be indicative of an origin in C - just as well as in G -. An interesting parallel can be found in Knowsthorpe YW 4, 128 where we have a similar succession of forms from Knousthorp (e ) 1327, Knowsthorp 1379 et seq , Knowesthorp 1546, Knostropp 1589, Nostrop 1649; these might well correspond to Gnosall forms such as Gnoushale , Gnowshale , Knos (s )all and Nosall . The e in Geneshale DB might be an example of AN  insertion of a vowel between cn - (gn -) as in Cannock, in which case we should be looking for a name beginning in cn - such Knút as is the case with Knowsthorpe. In fact the forms would be perfectly possible, except for the two early forms with Gnod (w )es -of 1199, representing Knoutes- > Knous - (Gnowes ) with halh 'water- meadow'. The DB form for Kneesall Nt 53 is Cheneshale which might be identical with Geneshale for Gnosall, but none of the later forms is in agreement with those for the latter. The 1199 Ass forms may be errors or represent a voicing of t to d .