Wadborough
Early-attested site in the Parish of Pershore Holy Cross
Historical Forms
- Wadbeorgas (pl.), Uuadbeorhan (dat. pl.) 972 BCS1282 c.1050
- Wadberg(e) 1086 DB c.1086 EveA 1190 Bracton 1220 Ipm 1324
- Watberg(e) a.1198 AOMB61 15th FF 1276
- Wauberg 1251 Ch 1298 Ipm
- Wadbarewe 1454 ADiii
- Wadborough 1628 QSR
Etymology
'Woad-hill' or 'hills,' for the form (twice repeated) in the OE charter is in the plural. Cf. wadbeorh (BCS 1299) in Cutsdean, wadbeorgas (BCS 183) in Tredington, wadlond in Hallow (BCS 356), wadleage (Heming 356), wadleahe (BCS 1222), waddene (ib. 1068), Odell (Beds), Woodhill (W) and Waddicar (La), all with the same first element.
These names, apart from those for which we have only post- Conquest forms, would point to the cultivation of woad in OE times, at least in Worcestershire, Berkshire and Hampshire. We have evidence of the cultivation of woad in the 16th cent. in Hampshire from the archives of the Borough of Southampton. It is repeatedly found in several localities in Britain (including Lincolnshire and Norfolk) but is scarcely fully naturalised, except near Tewkesbury, where it appears to be indigenous. In England, as elsewhere, it was ousted by the introduction of indigo.