Revd. G.D. Melhuish - Notes on the History of Ashwater Parish and Church

Quoditch.

I have had some correspondence with Mr. G. E. Gover of Reading, who is studying place names of this part of Devon. He tells me that a subsidy roll (sort of tax list) for Devon, of A.D. 1332, has given him several names of Ashwater farms, as they were spelt at that time. Surnames were not quite so much fixed in those days; you had your Christian name, but your surname might come, from your trade, or father, or the place where you lived, or it might be a nickname. Mr. Gover’s List is of people who were distinguished by the farms they lived at. Amongst all the Johns, one might be “of Braddon” — another “of Northend” — only the English language was rather despised by lawyers and learned folk of that time, and French was considered “classy” and cultured, so they put “de” instead of “of”,

After which long rigmarole of perhaps unnecessary explanation I come to the actual place names. Mr. Gover does not give the Christian names, so we must imagine a Peter or William coming before each place — de Arscote, de Estblakedon, de Braddon, de Gryndeworthi, de Ia Hethe, de Heghedon, de Hunscote, de Langeford, de Leverkeworthi, de Lukcrofte, de Morcomb, de Northend, de Quidhiwis, de la Fenne, de la Vise.

Of all the changes, that from Quidhiwis into Quoditch is most amusing. I even saw it spelt Cowditch in a map of Devon. One can follow the argument. You are not used to meeting quids or hiwises as you take your walks abroad, but you know all about cows and ditches, so you jump at the conclusion that Cowditch must have been the original name, as no fellow could possibly have made up such a word as Quidhiwis, A warning to us all (especially the Rector of Ashwater) as we go about explaining derivations out of our own heads.