Editing Wisbech (section)

=== Toponymy ===
The place name "Wisbech" is first attested in the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' for the year 656, where it appears as ''Wisbeach''. It is recorded in the 1086 [[Domesday Book]] as ''Wisbeach''. The name Wisbech is popularly believed to mean "on the back of the (River) Ouse", Ouse being a common [[Celtic languages|Celtic word]] relating to water and the name of [[River Great Ouse|a river]] that once flowed through the town. A more scholarly opinion is that the first element derives from the [[River Wissey]], which used to run to Wisbech, and that the name means 'the valley of the river Wissey'.<ref>[[Eilert Ekwall]], ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names'', p.526.</ref>
A wide range of spellings is found on trade tokens in the Wisbech & Fenland Museum and in newspapers, books, maps and other documents, e.g. ''Wisbece'', ''Wisebece'', ''Wisbbece'', ''Wysbeche'', ''Wisbeche'', ''Wissebeche'', ''Wysebeche'', ''Wysbech'', ''Wyxbech'', ''Wyssebeche'', ''Wisbidge'', ''Wisbich'' and ''Wisbitch'',<ref>{{cite journal|last=Devenish|first=David|title=Trade Tokens of Wisbech|journal=Annual Report|volume=53|pages=28–33|year=1992|publisher=Wisbech Society}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000237/18810909/010/0006?noTouch=true|title=To the Editor|newspaper=Stamford Mercury|date=9 September 1881}}</ref>
until the spelling of the name of the town was fixed by the local council in the 19th century.<ref>{{cite web|title= Numismatics|url= https://www.wisbechmuseum.org.uk/collections/|website= www.wisbechmuseum.org.uk|accessdate= 3 April 2021}}</ref>