Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Croglea 836 BCS416

• Crohlea 840 BCS428 11th DB 1086

• Croelai 1086 DB

• Croela Gualteri, Croela Odonis c.1086 EveA 1190

• Croule(ga), Crouleia c.1150 Surv 1201 Cur 1208 Fees36 1241 FF

• Croeley 1182 RBB 18th

• Crawlega 1182 RBB 18th

• Craulega 1185 P

• Craule 1201 Cur 1224 ClR

• Crolea 1212 Fees140

• Croule 1232 Ch 1240 WoP 1300 Ch 1308 Ipm

• Croule Haket 1359 FF 1540–4 LP

• Crauleia 1241 FF

• Crouley 1286 Ipm

• Croullee 1299 RBB 18th

• Croulee 1425 Ipm

• Croll 1481 IpmR

• Crowele R3 Bodl81

• Crule 1513 Bodl107

• Crowley 1535 VE 1540 LP

Etymology

This name cannot be considered apart from certain other English place-names. Crowhurst (Sx) appears as Crochyrst , Croghyrst (BCS 208, 834), Croydon (Sr) as Crogdene , Crogdæne in BCS 529, 1132, Crookham (Berks) as Crohhamm in BCS 802, none of them in original charters but all in respectable texts.In addition to these we have from post-Conquest documents Croughton (Ch), DBCrostona , St Werburgh Cartulary Croctona , Croghtona , Crostona , Crochtona , Crouhton , Crafton (Bk), DBCroustone , Croom in Sledmere (Y), DBCrogun , JohCrohum (BM). The only OE words which can be associated with these are (a ) OE  croh , 'saffron' (with an adjectival derivative croged , croced , 'the colour of saffron'), (b ) OE  crōg , crōh , 'vessel, pitcher, crock,' (c ) a rare crohha found in the OE  vocabularies as a gloss for luteum , 'mud,' and possibly connected with the dialectal crock , 'smut, dirt,' (d ) a similarly rare crōh , 'tendril.'It is very difficult to say how far any of these may be connected with some of the names in question. With regard to the saffron- croh we do not know how far it may have been cultivated in early times. Saffron as a flavouring belongs probably to post- Crusade times, when the autumn crocus was imported from the east, but saffron was a very common dye among the Romans and it may be that they actually cultivated it when in Britain and that afterwards it went out of fashion. The vessel-croh could only have been used in place-names from some fancied resemblance of the ground, and such is always hard to establish.In some ways the last two terms are the most likely, but we know very little about the words and for the present these names must remain an unsolved problem.

Odonis from Odo, a sub-tenant of Roger de Laci in DB, Gualteri , probably from Walter Hacket's holding in the late 12th cent. (VCH iii. 331), Haket from the same holding.