Great Merrible Wood
Other OS name in the Parish of Great Easton
Historical Forms
- Mirable Wood 1798,1815 Nichols 1824 O
- capelle de Mirabel 13 Nichols
- hermitagii de Mirabel 1232 RHug
- Mirabel Hermitagium 1262,1270 RGrav
- Holliock Merrybell 1606 ExchSpC
Etymology
, 1840 TA , Mirable Wood 1798, 1815 Nichols, 1824 O.Earlier is recorded capelle de Mirabel 13 Nichols (with MLat capella 'achapel'), hermitagii de Mirabel 1232 RHug, Mirabel Hermitagium 1262,1270 RGrav (with MLat hermitagium 'a hermitage'). Merrible wasoriginally the name of a hermitage with its own chapel, a medievalChristian foundation presumably sited close to the formerly paganAnglo-Saxon Holyoaks in adjacent Stockerston as a counter to possiblelingering heathen practices there. Nichols 2ii 815 quotes Throsby assuggesting that the possible site of the hermitage was in Great Easton ata place called Mirabel Hole , but the site may rather have been inHolyoaks where is recorded Holliock Merrybell 1606ExchSpC , v. mirable .