English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Wrangdike Hundred

Hundred in the County of Rutland

Historical Forms

  • Wrangedich(e) 1166,1167 P 1167 ChancR 1169 P 1197 et freq
  • Wrangedik 1275,1276 RH
  • Wrangedyk(e) 1286 Ass 1550,1551 Pat 1610 Speed
  • Wrongedich 1168,1169,1170 P 1181 et freq
  • Wronghedich 1256 For
  • Wrongedik(e), Wrongedyk(e) 1257 Ipm 1265 Misc 1302 AddCh 1305 FA
  • Wronggedik 1296 SR
  • Wrangdych 1428 FA
  • Wrangdyk(e) 1344 Pat 1369 Ipm 1551 Pat
  • Wrongdiche 1291 Abbr
  • Wrongdyke 1295 ib
  • on wrangan hylle 944 (c1240) BCS 801 (S 496)

Etymology

From its earliest mention, the division is styled as a hundred, never as a wapentake. Wrangedich was the name given to the western part of the old Witchley Hundred, v. Witchley Warren Fm in Edith Weston. It appears to be OE  *wrang -dīc 'crooked ditch', later Scandinavianized. OE  wrang is not necessarily a loan from ON since it occurs in Berkshire as early as 944 (on wrangan hylle 944 (c1240) BCS 801(S 496)), v. wrang , dīc . The whereabouts of the 'crooked ditch' which gave the hundred its name is unknown. The only wrang -dīc recorded is in North Luffenham parish, an unlikely position for a moot-site since it is at the very edge of this revised hundredal territory.A site for a hundredal court would have been more likely in Glaston or Seaton, central to the territorial unit. In Seaton, a Syrepol is recorded at the beginning of the 15th century. If its first element is OE  scīr 'a shire, an administrative district', then the name of the pool may indicate the proximity of the hundred's moot-site.