The "Domesday Book" provides the earliest mention of the area, where it is recorded as "Cedde", Celtic for "wood". Local archaeological finds include Bronze Age axes discovered in Cheadle. Evidence of Roman occupation includes coins and jewellery, which were found in 1972, and the modern-day Cheadle Road, originally known as Street Lane, may be of Roman origin. A stone cross dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon St Chad, uncovered in 1873, indicates Anglo-Saxon activity. The cross was found in an area called "Chad Hill", on the banks of Micker Brook near its confluence with the River Mersey; this area became "Chedle". Suggestions for the origin of the name include the words , and "leigh" or "leah", in Old English meaning "clearing", forming the modern day "Cheadle". "Hulme" may have been derived from the Old Norse word for "water meadow" or "island in the fen".