Cockshoot Fm
Early-attested site in the Parish of Wichenford
Historical Forms
- Cocscute c.1230 WoC c.1240
Etymology
Cf. Cockshot in Cakemore infra 293, and Cocscute in Knighton (WoC ). In both these cases we have the obsolete word cocksho (o )t , explained in the NED as 'glade in a wood through which woodcocks etc. might dart or "shoot," so as to be caught by nets stretched across the opening.' This name appears in various forms as Cockshot (t ), Cockshut (e ), Cockshutt in some thirteen Worcestershire parishes on the present-day map. It is also common in Gl, He (cf. PN Gl 46, PN He 46).In addition to the forms for Cockshoot and Cockshot we have in the Kyre Park Charters an unidentified Cokkesheotefeld in Kyre, in the 13th cent. These forms carry back the history of the word some 250 years further than the forms in the NED and tend to show that the proper form of the suffix was OE scēot .
After this article was written, an article by Professor Zachrisson appeared in ZONF ii. 146, which demonstrates the existence, side by side with the familiar sceat in place-names, of a second form sciete , with much the same sense. He shows, on the same lines as those in our article, that derivation from shoot will not explain the early forms of Cockshoot and suggests that the name was originally coc -scīete , 'corner into which the cocks were driven,' or the like. scīete would explain the later forms equally well with scēot , and it is difficult to suggest a sense for the latter.
Mr St Clair Baddeley tells us of a Cockshoot Wood under Longridge in Painswick (Gl). This land was held (c. 1420) by the rent of two woodcocks from Lord Talbot, by the then vicar of Painswick. This is an interesting proof that the cocks in such names were really woodcocks .