Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Essolth 1172 YCh200

• Essolt(e) 1175–85 1181–5 Dugdv 1231 YDii 1333 Riev

• Esseholt 1172–81 YCh52 1185–95 c.1190,c.1230,1327 Calv 1336 FF c.1374 YDiv

• Hesseholt 1354 Kirkst 1379 YDi

• Essold 1185–1215 YCh 16 BM Ed1 RH 1276 YDix 1281 Dugdv 14

• Esholt 1219,1235 FF 1246 Calv 1357 BM 1540 MonRent

• Essholt 1299,1369 Baild 1493 Dugdv 1526 FF 1539 MinAcct

• Nunn Essholt 1321 Add

• Nunn Essholt in Ayredale 1374 YDiv

• Esscald c.1230 Calv

• Eysseholt 1271 FF

• Escheholt 1248 Ch 1353 BM

• Es(s)cholt 1300,1301 Ebor 1324,1347 BM

• Nun Es(s)cholt, Nun Es(s)cholt in Ayrdale 1321 ib

• Es(s)heholt(e) 1372 YDi 1459 Baild 1540 MonRent

• Es(s)hold 1311 NCyWills 1313 Dunelm 1366 WYD 1673 PROt

• Es(s)hehold (Abbay) 1452 WillY 1569 FF

• Es(s)hehold in Ayredale 1452 Testii

• Es(s)hould(e) 1340 BM 1592 WillY 1648 PRGs

• Es(s)chewolde 1342 BM

• Asholt 1485 Pat

• Ayssheold 16 BM

• Esshald 1358 BM 1434 Testii

• Escheald 1402 ib

Etymology

This name may mean 'ash wood' (v. æsc , holt ), but the spellings with -(h )ald , -(h )old are too numerous to be ignored; they may represent the original form of the name, since the replacement of a common el. like holt by the much rarer hald (even allowing for AN influence) seems improbable; the reverse process would indeed be more usual. In that case Esholt would mean 'shelter by the ashtree', v. hald . A third possibility is that two original p.ns. Æsc -holt and Æsc -hald have combined and were used indiscriminately to describe the settlement. OE  hald would not normally appear as hold before the thirteenth century and the only spelling before that date comes in fact from a sixteenth-century copy; the late spellings with -wold are obvious substitutions. On æsc appearing as esh - cf. Phonol. § 1. Esholt was the site of a nunnery founded t. Hy 2 (Dugd v, 469), hence Nun (n )- (v. nunne ).