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Woodcock - OE wudecocc, wuduhana, wudusnite, holthana or hrucge

Wudecocc itself doesn’t appear in place-names, but we can determine with some confidence when simple cocc is likely referring to Scolopax rusticola from the habitat. It may be that hana, too (‘cock’), may have referred to the woodcock in some circumstances. For other cocc and hana names, see the page for ‘bird’.

Cock Beck (Yorks)

Cockfield (Co Dur)

Cockley Beck (Cumb)

Cockpole Green (Berks)

Cockshutt (Shrops)

Cockwood (Dev)

Hanwood (Shrops)

Field names: Cockborow, Brigstock (Northants), Cockcroft, Leominster (Herts), Cockmerse, Cirencester (Glos), Cockshead Field, Macclesfield (Ches), Cockshutt, Cool Pilate (Ches), Cockshutt, Heath (Derbs), Cockshutt, Outwood (Yorks), Cockshutt Meadow, Picklescott (Shrops), Cockshutts, Felley (Northants), Cocschete, East Dean (Glos), Cokshettesplace, Hasfield (Glos), Cokshutehul, Catton (Derbs). The thought is that there must have been an Old English term behind so many variants on the same name, *cocc-scyte or *cocc-sciete, meaning something like ‘place where woodcock rode or can be seen/found’, or, more specifically, ‘place where nets are set to trap woodcock’. Cockshutt in Shropshire (above) is the only example of this name that made it village and parish level (there is a pub called The Woodcock there!)

The woodcock may be the species identified in charters relating to the following places: Crediton, Devon (8th cen.), Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks (8th cen.), Watchfield, Berks (10th cen.).

Sources (see ‘About’ page for the full bibliography): Watts, Cambridge Dictionary; Ekwall, Oxford Dictionary; Gelling and Cole, Landscape of Place-Names; Cavill, English Field-Names; www.langscape.org.uk.

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