 Whitney-on-Wye was first mentioned in the Domesday Book with the spelling Witenie.The most plausible meaning for the name is "White Water", from the Anglo-Saxon "hwit" (white) and "ey" (water), and probably refers to the River Wye which runs through the area and which can become a torrent when heavy rains in the Welsh mountains cause it to swell.During the Captain Swing riot movement of 1830, Whitney was a site in Herefordshire for protest by the dispossessed farm labourers who threatened arson and machine breaking to try to obtain a living wage.