Survey of English Place-Names

Etymology

Bingletts Wood is terra voc. Byngeleys in 1468 (ft), Bynglye in Heathfield in 1614 (SRS 14, 116) and must contain the same name that we find in Philip de Byngelegh assessed under Hellingly in 1327 SR. Byngelegh would seem to contain the same element bing found in binguuellan (BCS 208) in the Bexhill charter. There is an English dialectal bing used of (a ) a heap, (b ) a receptacle in various senses, but these are NCy loan-words from Scandinavian. Falk and Torp (s. v. bing ) relate the Scandinavian word meaning a receptacle to MHG binge , 'kettle- shaped hollow in the hills.' And Middendorff (s. n .) relates the charter bing (e ) also to High German binge , 'forest-ditch' used in p.n's. If such a word was in use in Old South Saxon it might well be found in a compound with wielle , denoting 'spring in a hollow.' It is not clear whether Bingletts is manorial or local in origin. If it is local then there is a well-marked hollow which might well be called a bing in this sense.