The hundred was originally part of the Cantref Coch, an ancient Welsh land division (cantrefi) but became known as Blideslow and Blideslau in English.[1] The hundred is named after the hamlet of Bledisloe. Once a tithing of the parish of Awre and now a hamlet north of Lydney on the A48 road, where the hundred met. The meeting place was a mound known as Bledisloe Tump. The second element clearly derives from the Old English "-hlǣw" meaning tumulus, burial mound or barrow.[2][3] William Lewis states that this barrow was that of one Blīþe deriving the name from "Blīþe's Barrow".[4]
At the time of the Domesday Book the hundred included Awre manor, Bledisloe, Etloe, Purton and Nass. Alvington (previously a detached part of Herefordshire) and Lydney joined the hundred by 1221.[5]
References
^Rudge, Thomas (1803). The History of the County of Gloucester Compressed and Brought Down to the Year 1803. Harris. pp. 113–117.
^Room, Adrian (2003). Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings. McFarland. ISBN0786418141.
^Poulton-Smith, Anthony (2009). Shropshire Place Names. p. 87.
^Lewis, William (2023). What's in an English Place-name? A History of England in Its Place-names. Brazen Head Publishing.
^N M Herbert A P Baggs; A R J Jurica (1996). C R J Currie (ed.). "Bledisloe Hundred". A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
