Earls Croome
Major Settlement in the Parish of Earls Croome
Historical Forms
- Cromman, æt cromban, cromban 969 BCS1235 11th
- Crumbe 1086 DB c.1086 EveA 1190
- Cromba c.1086 EveB 1190
- Crombe Adam 1255 Ass
- Crombe Simon 1275,1327 SR 1275 Ass
- Crumb Adam 1340 NI 1291 Tax
- Symondis Crombe 1310 FF 1348 Wigorn 1397 Pat
- Cromb Symond 1462 Wigorn
- Erles Crome 1495 Pat
- Crome Symondes al. Erles Grove al. Erles Crome 1547 LP
Etymology
It is tempting to take this name as a derivative of OE crumb , 'crooked,' used perhaps as a noun (cf. Duignan PN Wo 46) but the sense is not clear. There are great curves of the Severn here and the whole district may once have been called 'æt þǣm crumbum .' The Croomes do not actually border on the Severn, but we must remember that they were carved out of the manor of Ripple which lies along that river. The manorial history is that the manor was granted to one Adam (c. 1100), Simon held it in 1182 (P), other Simons and Adams followed and, before 1369, it passed into the hands of the Earls of Warwick (cf. VCH iii. 316–7).