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.

Telscombe

Major Settlement in the Parish of Telscombe

Historical Forms

  • Titelescumb 966 BCS1191 c.1400 Lewes159
  • Tittelescumbe 1248 Ass
  • Tytelescumbe 1268 SRS4
  • Titelescombe 1340 NI 1377 IpmR
  • Titlescomb 1509 LP
  • Tetelescombe 1272 RH 1340 NI 1377 Pat
  • Tettelescombe 1291 Tax
  • Totelescumbe t.Ed1 IpmR
  • Tetlescumbe 1294 Pat
  • Tetlescombe 1377 Pat
  • Thekelescumbe 1307 Ass

Etymology

There is an OE  pers. name Tytel or Tytla (Redin 147) which may be the first element in this name. It would explain the o and e forms, but we should have expected some u -forms in that case. The Tittandun of BCS 667 suggests that there may have been an OE  pers. name Titta , perhaps a pet-form of an OE  name in Tīd -, and this might have a diminutive derivative Tittel . See also Tillinghurst supra 254. That would however leave the e -forms unexplained. 'Valley of Tytel (or, less probably Tittel ),' v. cumb .

Places in the same Parish

None