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.

Birdbeck Field

Early-attested site in the Parish of Upwell

Etymology

Birdbeck Field (6″). Cf. Bud (e )beche c. 1320Thorney , campo Bud (e )beche 1403SewersA , 1429, 1533SewersC , 1442 Cl, Bud (e )beche Upwell 1620AddCh , Bod(e)beche (feld )1340 Imb, Burbech Field c. 1840TA . The first element is OE  budda , 'dung-beetle' and the second bece , 'stream, valley' and the whole name is probably descriptive of a place where they breed.For the strange development to bird we may perhaps compare the form sherne birds for sherne buds , 'dung-beetles,' found in a 14th- century MS of Trevisa's translation of Bartholomeus Anglicus (v. PMLA l, 1042).