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.

The Leche

Early-attested site in the Parish of Feckenham

Historical Forms

  • andlang lecc, lecc c.960 BCS1006 11th
  • Leche c.1300 AlmBk

Etymology

This is the word lache, leche found in ME  and surviving as the dialectal latch , letch or leach . This form is interesting as giving the OE nom. and acc. sg. form for this word, not hitherto noticed. It is clearly the same word for a stream as lecke , noted by Jellinghaus, Die Westfälischen Ortsnamen 128.