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.

Lacock

Major Settlement in the Parish of Lacock

Historical Forms

  • Lacok 854 BCS470 14th Ch t.Hy1 1329 Cl 1230 1232
  • Lacoc(h) 1086 DB
  • Lachocha 1166 P
  • Lakoc 1189 WMxvi 1252 BM 1267 SarumCh 1306 Pap
  • Lacoc 1198 P 1223 ClR 1229,1238 Cl 1242 Fees
  • Lacoq c.1210 BM
  • Lakok 1255 Cl
  • Lacheoche 1185 Templars
  • Lacoke 1193 P
  • Lacocke 1316 FA
  • La Cocke 1543 LP
  • Laycock 1439 IpmR
  • Laycocke 1584 FF 1653 Recov

Etymology

This is a difficult name. Lacock lies on a small tributary of the Avon and it may be that the stream was called Lacuc , a diminutive of the common word lacu for a small stream. If that is the case the history of the name is quite different from that of Laycock in Yorkshire with similar forms, for the topography of Laycock would not admit of this explanation. The matter is further complicated by the nearby Lackham infra 103. This looks as if it might be a compound of lacu , but there are difficulties in such an interpretation. There is the formal difficulty that if it were a compound of lacu , we should expect Lakeham rather than Lakham in the early and later forms alike. On the topographical side, Lackham lies in a bend of the Avon, which can hardly be described as a lacu , while the little stream on the south side of Lackham Park is even smaller than that on which Lacock lies, so that the latter could hardly be 'little lacu ' if this one were 'lacu .' Perhaps the explanation of Lackham should be sought elsewhere. The first element may be OE  lēac , as in Latton supra 45. Leckhampstead (Berks), Leckhampton (Gl), and Lackham denote the 'ham(m) where leeks grew,' or more probably, where garden-plants generally grew.