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Many fields are named from their fruitfulness or unfruitfulness. 
Of names denoting fruitfulness we have many specially named 
after crops (of which I will speak further on) but besides them I 
suppose the Green Ground would be so named from its rich 
pasture, and perhaps this would account for such names as Eden 
field, Mount Pleasant, Angels Hill and perhaps Butterwell and 
Honey Hill. Eden field is a very rich lowland pasture but 
Mount Pleasant and Angels Hill may be named from their 
pleasant position and prospects. Unfruitful fields are noted by 
such names as Shortgrass, Pickpocket, Little Pickpocket, Trouble- 
some, Little Worth, Hungry Hill, Foulwood (a piece of pasture) 
and Poor Tyning, though the last may have been land in some way 
belonging to the poor of the parish. To these we may probably 
add Brier lands, remembering that briers and thorns were the 
universal symbols of unfruitfulness, and hindrances to cultivation. 
Many fields are named after animals. We have Conygre and 
Congrove, a well-known word spelt in many different ways and 
meaning a rabbit warren ; Brockham Hill, once no doubt famous 
for brocks, i.e. badgers and foxes, which have long ceased to 
frequent it ; Goose-acre a very common name in many parishes, 
probably once an open common as in the adjoining parish of 
Siston where it is called Goose Green ; Doveley, Larks Leaze, 
Cowhorn Hill field, the road taking a twist just like a cow’s horn, 
Catscliff and Cockshot Hill and Cock Road both well-known 
words in all forests marking the places where snares were set in 
a sort of decoy for the woodcocks. 
Many fields also are named from plants, and it is a fair guess 
that the plants named flourished in such fields.) We have Withy 
Bed, Aldermoor, Cow Cabbage Field, Hop Ground (it must be 
many years since hops were grown in the parish), Rusham, 
Elmgrove, Ryedown, Ryelands, Cherry Orchard, Cherry Garden 
(this also marks a local crop long given up), Poplar piece, Mary 
Gold ground (a name difficult to explain, for the beautiful corn- 
marigold is fortunately absent from our fields, and I know of no 
i” 
