Talk:Uley

message: On 14th February 2007, 62.172.124.68  added the following statement to the article on Uley: "NB local associated hamlet names of Owlpen (pronounced "Old Pen"), Lampern (Lamb Pen) and river/stream name Ewelme ("Ewe") lend support to the possibility that the village name is derived from the historic dependence on the wool trade."
I have removed this from the article in line with Wikipedia policy, since these are conjectures rather than verifiable facts.  However, since the origin of place names is something that is endlessly debatable - and sometimes controversial - it seems worthwhile to start a discussion item here on the topic instead.
I am not as convinced as 62.172.124.68 that these names have much to do with the wool trade.  According to Eilart Ekwall (viz.  The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English PlaceNames. 4th edition. Oxford University Press, 1960.), the Old English meaning of the name Ewelme is a spring, or source of a river. This seems a much more likely explanation for the naming of the little river that rises in the Uley valley.  
Regarding Owlpen and Lampern: pen often means a headland or hill, and this would be a good alternative explanation for the names of both these places. However, Ekwall does state that the former is probably ‘’Olla’s pen or enclosure’’; no mention of sheep though!
Finally, a search on the etymology of the word ewe reveals that its roots lie in the Latin ovis sheep, and Greek ois, which in turn became Eowu in Old English (see Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary). Not quite the same sounding name as it is today, and so perhaps less likely as the origin of the name of Uley’s river a thousand years ago.  The place names in the Uley valley appear in the Domesday Book and other contemporary documents, and so must have been established long before the wool trade got going in the area. The wool trade only became important to Uley during the later mediæval period, when its copious supplies of fresh water were important for the processing of wool; see  Derek Hurst’s book, Sheep in the Cotswolds  (Tempus Publishing, 2005), for an excellent study of this subject. So I am somewhat sceptical about the local connection between place names and sheep.
Are there any toponymists out there who can help with this?!
Downhamhill 18:38, 18 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Origin of place names in the Uley Valley 

message: There seems to be a large, unsightly white space at the top of Uley's page - is it not possible to optimise the layout to remove this?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.198.163.12 (talk) 15:37, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Layout of Uley Wiki Page 

message: The source given is this page from the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (1845). His connection with Uley is given separately, on page 383, where a threshing machine is described as "a recent and scarcely completed invention by G. Parsons and Richard Clyburn of West Lambrook and Uley." Even assuming this is the same Clyburn, and that he was from Uley and not from West Lambrook, I'm unsure this brief mention of two inventions, the design and importance of which is completely unknown, in a somewhat obscure 170-year-old journal, is hardly enough to make him a notable individual. I therefore propose that the entry should be removed, until more compelling evidence can be found. Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 07:59, 2 June 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Richard Clyburn 

message: I propose to merge Shadwell, Gloucestershire into Uley. I think that the content in the Shadwell, Gloucestershire article can easily be explained in the context of Uley, and the Uley article is of a reasonable size that the merging of Shadwell, Gloucestershire will not cause any problems as far as article size is concerned. — Rod talk 15:40, 6 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Elcombe is another hamlet within the parish which could be merged into this article.— Rod talk 11:53, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: As there were no objections I have now done the merges.— Rod talk 14:06, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merger proposal