Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Salewerpæn 706 BCS116 12th

• Saluuerpe 717 BCS137 11th BCS203 770

• Saluuarpe 767 BCS202 12th

• Salouuearpan (dat.), Salouuarpe 817 BCS360 11th

• Salowearpe, Saleworp, Saloworpan (acc.), Salewearpan (acc.) 17th BCS361

• Salouuarpan, Salwarpan, Saloworpe, Salewarpe 11th BCS362

• Sealeweorpan 982 BCS1282 c.1050

• Salewarpe 1086 DB 1438 IpmR

• Saleuuarpa Wm1 Ch 1313

• Salop(e) 1275 Ass 1307 Ipm

• Salwarp 1327 SR

• Sallopia in Wigorn 1590 Wills

Etymology

Most of the early references are to the stream on which Salwarpe stands and it is clear that the place takes its name from the stream.

The river Salwarpe runs in a sinuous course with a very slight fall. Habington (ii. 296) says that it runs 'close by the brynckes of thease saltpyttes.…If, as sometymes happenethe, the fresh water with exceedynge fluddes overfloweth the baulkes and for a season drowneth the salt-wells, etc.' This suggests that the river Salwarpe might have been so called because it deposits warp or 'alluvial sediment, silt.' This word warp is only recorded from the 17th cent. (NED), but it may well have existed earlier.The NED on the basis of the Yorkshire place-name Ruswarpe and the common use of the word warp in this sense in Lincs and Yorks suggests that it is from ON  varp in an unrecorded sense. The Worcestershire place-name and (to a less degree) the occurrence of warp in Northamptonshire dialect suggest that the word may have been native English also, or even alone.The idea which lies behind the word is that of something which is 'thrown' (cf. OE weorpan , 'to throw'). This element is found elsewhere in the Germanic dialects, but there it has the sense of something which is thrown up and heaped so as to form a dam or dyke. This is seen in the history of Antwerp (Förstemann, Die Deutsche Ortsnamen 45) which is a compound of this element and and -, ant -, 'against,' and in such names as Warp , Neuwarp . The usual term in OE  for such a dam or bank is gewyrp , an i -formation from a different grade of the same stem (cf. Middendorff s. v .). The first element, as suggested by Middendorff s. v. , may be OE  salu , sealu , 'dark-coloured, sallow,' and the element be descriptive of the colour of the alluvium.