Origin of the name Mayfield
The Domesday Book
The origin of the of our village is a very interesting story. The name Mayfield might conjure up an image of beautiful countryside in late spring with the blossom on the trees and bluebells in the woods giving the village its name. However, the origin of the name Mayfield is very much different.
As with many English village names the first recorded example of the name Mayfield appears in the Domesday Book. In the Domesday book of 1086 Mayfield appears to be written as Medevelde.
For many years people thought that this name had its origins as an early version of the name ‘Madder Field’ or the place where the madder plant grows. However, that is incorrect.
Due to the way that the scribes wrote the entries in the Domesday Book the name for Mayfield does look like it has a letter D in it and so the name was thought to be Medevelde.
However, the letter that looks like a D is actually the medieval letter thorn. The letter thorn is usually written as a Þ shape, and it is pronounced as a ‘th’ sound when spoken. Apparently, the scribes that wrote the entries in the Domesday Book wrote the Þ in a style that to the modern eye looks like a D. Hence the name can be more clearly written as MeÞevelde and pronounced Methevelde.
The changes in the spelling of Mayfield
If you look at the list of the changes in spelling of Mayfield over the years you will see that there is a definite ‘th’ sound in the name of Mayfield for hundreds of years as the name changed after the Domesday Book was compiled.
This therefore raises the question, what did Methevelde actually mean or what was the name actually derived from?
Tracing the original meaning of Methevelde
The study of the origins of placenames is called Toponymy and there have been a lot of work done on the Staffordshire placenames and we have consulted 2 of these studies to discover the origin of the name of Mayfield.
Notes on Staffordshire Place Names – by W. H. Duignan 1902
A Survey and Analysis of the Placenames of Staffordshire – by David Horovitz, LL. B. 2003
These two studies propose that the name for Mayfield derive from two words Maethel and Velde.
David Horowitz in his 2003 PhD paper also suggests the origin of the name for Mayfield is Meeting Field.
The Conclusion
The scholarly position is that the origin of the name Mayfield does not derive from Madder Field but an older origin of Meeting Field.
Given that Mayfield lies on the River Dove which is the ‘border’ between Mercia (Staffordshire side) and Danelaw (Derbyshire side); is at the place where 3 ancient Briton tribes’ lands meet (Brigantes, Cornovii, and Corieltauvi); has been a crossroads for people travelling along the Roman Road from Rocester to Buxton and Rocester to Chesterfield, Hereward’s Way, the Earl’s Way, Pilgrim’s Way, Salt Road, and Silk Road; then having a meeting place at Mayfield makes lots of sense.
Regarding where the meeting place might have been, the Heritage Group has some ideas and is investigating one strong candidate. We will report on this in the near future.