Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• crucem de Yuccrosse 1305 Ass6d

• Youcrosse 1307 YI

Etymology

Ewcross (lost), crucem de Yuccrosse 1305Ass 6d, Youcrosse 1307 YI. This cross gave its name to the wapentake (217 supra ), and the spellings for the latter name are more plentiful. The forms with Yu -, You - are too early for the first el. to be from either eowu 'ewe' or īw 'yew-tree', and those with medial -cc -, -kc - point to an ON  pers.n. Ióki or Iúki (a hypocoristic form of ON  Iókell ), as suggested by Anderson 27. The site of the cross is unknown, but in the list of bounds in 1307 YI it stands in the series, the top of Penegent , Durlaykhege , the boundary between the Mowbray and the Percy fees, Youcrosse , Whettyngstan , Langemangrave , Knote …, Caldestan . The only places which can be identified with certainty are Pen-y-ghent (infra ) and Cold Stone 11 miles to the south-west in Clapham (234infra ); Knote …clearly stands for Knotteranum in Austwick 1 mile east of Cold Stone (229infra ), Langemangrave is possibly identical with Dead Man's Cave (155supra ) and Whettyngstan with Whetstone Bank (infra ) in Horton. This would put Ewcross in the south of Horton parish, probably somewhere in the neighbourhood of Helwith Bridge, which is the site of a crossing of the R. Ribble linking Ribblesdale with the Wenning valley and Lonsdale.