Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Fininges 1230 FF

• Fynigges 1279 Ass

• Wynynges 1296 SR

• Fyning' 1275 Ass

• Fynyngg' 1312 FF

• Fyning 1421 IpmR

• Fynnyng 1302 Ass

• Vynyng(e) 1327 SR

• Fenyng 1412 FA

• Vining 1823 G

• Upper and Lower Finnings 1823 G

• atte Wynyng 1332 SR

Etymology

Fyning is found as a place-name more than once in Sussex.There is a wood called Vining Rough (Upper and Lower Finnings 1823 G) in Easebourne about 7 miles to the east of Fyning, but the forms quoted above all seem to refer to the latter place and there is a field called the Vinings in the TA (1840) for Sidlesham. There was also a lost Vining in Westhampnett, for in 1279 (Ass 921) we have reference to a road 'inter Vining et Schepewik ', i.e. Shop wyke infra 76. The repe- tition of the name would suggest some descriptive term or an derivative of such.

Fyning is on a slope halfway up a hill which rises to some 500 ft., being itself just below a small peak marked 272 ft. on the map. Vining Rough is heathland on ground rising to some 626 ft., being itself some 500 ft. up. The site of Vining near Shopwyke is unknown but it must have been on flat ground with little variation of surface. OE  fīn , 'heap, hill' (cf. Findon infra 197), would not be out of the question for the first two examples but seems impossible for the other two. Zachrisson's suggestion of OE  fenn , 'marsh' (English Place-names containing *Vis , *Vask 53–4), even if the forms allowed it, will not hold good.The first two examples are on high heathland and the third was not on anything that could be called marshland. Trotton Marsh, which is cited in support of this explanation for Fyning, is a mile and a half to the north-west on the other side of a hill 450 ft. high, while Milland Marsh is still another two miles to the north-west. Much more important is his note of a further example of this name in Robert atte Finnyng in the Subsidy Roll (1296) for Burton and Bignor. Marshland is again very unlikely here. This clearly points to some significant word. Three of the five examples are certainly in woodland areas and it may be suggested that we have an ing -derivative of the word fin used of a wood-heap. A fining was perhaps a place where such heaps abounded. Cf. the use of ing after plant-names as illustrated s. n. Hazeldean infra 263.

Professor Ekwall points out that the evidence favours a short vowel. If so, he would take the first part of the word to be a plant-name cognate with Norw  finn , 'nardus stricta,' MDu vinne , 'bristle of an ear of corn,' and the whole name to mean 'place where coarse grass grows.' If the vowel is long, he suggests we may have a verbal derivative fīnung of a verb fīnian meaning 'to cut heaps of wood.' The word would denote a clearing or the like. Dr Ritter notes a possible parallel in the continental silva Vininge (1345) near Lüneburg (Lünebürger Heimatbuch ii. 114).

It is noteworthy that there is apparently a man of the same family called John atte Wynyng in 1332 (SR), in Barlavington.It is clear that in this case as in Fyning itself one has a curious interchange between initial f , v and w . For this interchange f > v > w , we may compare the change from v to w noted in East Sussex (EDG, § 281) and compare Vox End infra 337, with Waxend just by it, and Woxherl (1279) for Foxearle infra 477.