Bickleigh Close

There is more than one Bickleigh in Devon, there is one near Exeter in the Exe Valley with the delightful sixteenth century Bickleigh Bridge and medieval church, and another on the western slopes of the Plym Valley on the edge of Dartmoor. It is, of course, the latter that we must look to for the origin of the two local street names - Bickleigh Close and Bickleigh Down Road.

However in both of the above mentioned Devon Bickleighs the name is thought to have come from Bica or Bicca’s “leah” and although there are a number of other Bickleighs or Bickleys outside of the county this is not thought to detract from the notion that these were both “woodlands, meadows or clearings” belonging to a Saxon called Bica or Bicca.

EH 25 April 2000