190 



Some lilacr autr iftrttr i^amcs of ti^e parisf) 

 of Stabflep. 



By Rev. Will. L. Coleman. 



?|]HE word Staveley is derived from two Anglo-Saxon 

 words, staef, a stick, staff, rod, pole, or support ; and 

 ley or lea, which indicates an open place in a wood 

 where the cattle lie, and afterwards a meadow. Thus 

 we get staefley, the staffland or meadow of staves. In the Domes- 

 day Book, the name is spelt Stavelie, and in a document of the 

 reign of Edward VI. we find that form of the word which one so 

 frequently hears now in the local vernacular, Staley. In a 

 Lichfield Diocesan Clergy List for 1602, it is termed Stavy. 



From Thorpe, the Danish word for a village or hamlet, we get 

 Woodthorpe, the village by the wood ; also Netherthorpe, the 

 lower hamlet, situated as it is at the foot of the little hill 

 below Woodthorpe. 



The three hamlets of Nether, Middle, and West Handley, were 

 originally a separate manor, but are now merged into that of 

 Staveley. The name probably indicates the high meadow, from 

 the Anglo-Saxon ha7i ox he an, high, and ley. 



The Anglo-Saxon hagge, haigh, or hay, denotes properly an 

 enclosure surrounded by a hedge. There are many instances of 

 this word in Derbyshire, two of which occur in Staveley, viz., the 

 Hague farm near to Renishaw, and the Hagge between Staveley 

 and Handley. The house which now bears the title of the Hagge 

 was built early in the seventeenth century, and takes its name 

 from the spot on which it stands, which, in the days when the 



