Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Ell gill 1846 TA

Etymology

Hellgill Bank, Hellgill Bank Plant . 1857OS , Ell gill 1846TA . This name occurs several times in We (i, 206, ii, 3, 16 infra ) and a word of the same form as the first el. may be found in Hillbeck (ii, 67infra ), Helwath, Helwith (YN 117, 291), Hell Gill Beck (ib 259), and Hell Beck (Cu 17). In some ford-names like Helwath, we clearly have ON  hella 'flat stone', and this is possible with some of the stream-names. But in others, as Ekwall (RN 194) has noted, we may have ON  hellir 'cave'. ModE  dial. hell-beck denotes 'a stream issuing from a cave-like recess' in Cu, We, and YN, and in mid-Y dial. hell-dyke is used of 'a dark ravine', a sense appropriate in some examples of Hellgill, cf. also Hell hole (i, 151 infra ); v. gil 'ravine'.