Survey of English Place-Names

Etymology

( 6 ″ ) is so named in 1832(Boothby ) . It is said to be so called because “ as the judges and their retinue could not be properly accommodated with provisions on their road from Newcastle to Carlisle , they took capons with them . … On these they regaled under a large Oak tree ” ( H i , 129 ) . The fact that Capon Tree is not adjacent to a medieval through - road , and the existence of a Capen bush in Caldbeck , make it impossible to accept Hutchinson 's derivation . Up to the present the compound capon - tree has not been found in any context which gives a clue to the meaning .