Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Wittlæg 964 BCS1135 12th

• Witleah, Witleag 969 BCS1242 11th KCD682 c.972 11th

• Wihtlega 11th Heming

• Witlege 1086 DB

• Wit(er)lega c.1086 EveA 1190

• Widelega 1187 P

• Parva Wyttelege, Wyttelege 1249 FF

• Wytele Minor 1275 Ass

• Litelwytele 1388 IpmR

• Little Whytley 1550 Pat

Etymology

The early forms of this name and Great Witley supra 86 make it certain that the first element is not the adjective hwit , for we should have had that adjective in the weak oblique case, hwītan .The form quoted from Heming suggests very strongly that the first element is OE  wiht . For this element in OE place-names, cf. Great Whyte (PN BedsHu 216) and the evidence there, and ib. xli. It is there suggested that the word wiht may in OE have been used of a 'curve or bend in a stream.' Shrawley Brook as it runs up from Little to Great Witley has a somewhat sinuous course, and it may well be that the whole leah or clearing originally took its distinctive first element from one or other of these well-marked bends in the stream which goes through it. Wetmoor (St), whose early forms suggest a similar first element (Duignan PN St 170) lies in a bend of the Trent. Whitehall Fm in Tackley (O), KCD 709 Wihthull , lies in a well-curved hollow at the foot of a hill.