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.

Coleshill Fm and Coles Hill

Early-attested site in the Parish of Betchworth

Historical Forms

  • Cole 1327 SR

Etymology

For the two other place-names Zachrisson suggests a word *coll , meaning a hill. Even if there were evidence for its existence, we should be faced with the extraordinary phenomenon that whenever it is found as a first element it always forms a genitival compound, but there is no real evidence for its existence.Zachrisson cites a form atte Colle given in PN Wo 281, but fails to note the identification there suggested with a place called Colley. If Colle were really from coll , 'a hill,' it could not give rise to Colley, for there would then be no explanation of the disyllable.