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.

Ram Alley

Early-attested site in the Parish of South Savernake

Etymology

Ram Alley is so named in 1773 (A and D). Crawford (WM xli, 287–8) shows that the place is just by igfeld of the great Bedwyn charter (BCS 1213) and igfled (sic) of the Burbage charter (ib. 1067) and from this draws the very likely inference that Eilly (1275 RH) in Kinwardstone Hundred is to be identified with Alley and goes back to igleah , descriptive of the woodland on the isolated hogsback of land just to the west, here described as an ieg or 'island.' For a possible parallel cf. Iley Oak supra 154.