Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• at Blechenhamwelle 955 ShaftR(S573) 14

• to Blechenenwelle, on Blechene, of þanne welle 956 14 ib

• Bleche(ne)well(e) 1288 Ass

• at Blachenwelle 956 ShaftR(S632) 14

• Blachen(e)well(e) 1218,1232 Hutch3 1285 FA 1376

• Blachen(e)well(e) Bridge, the runninge water of Blachen(e)well(e) 1381 Pitt 16 Ct 1539 Hutch3 1861

• Blachen(e)woll(e) 1332 SR 1376 Ass 1377 Ass

• Blachyn(g)well 1316 FA 1512 Ct

• Blachinwell 1513 ib

• Blashenwell Fm 1844 TA

• Blakenwelle 956 ShaftR(S632) 14

• in Blacanawilla 15 ShaftR

• Blackenewell 1227 FF

• Blackenwell 1795 Boswell

• Blauethewolle 1327 SR

• Blanchinwell c.1586 Tres

• Black Knowl 1811 OS

• Blatch Nowl 1826 Gre

Etymology

The first el. may be an OE noun *blǣcen 'bleaching', as suggested by Fägersten 118–19, with hamm 'enclosure, river-meadow' and well(a) (WSax  wyll(a)) 'spring, stream'. Professor Löfvenberg points out that an OE  *blǣcen presupposes a PrGerm  *blaikīniz , an abstract noun derived from *blaiki  an (whence OE  blǣcan 'to bleach'), and that the name would refer to a place where cloth was bleached.Blechenenwelle may be a reduced form of Blechenhamwelle ('(spring or stream at) the bleaching enclosure') or a scribal error for Blechenwelle ('bleaching spring or stream'). The charter bdy form Blechene (956), used as the name of the spring or stream, may be a back- formation or the abstract noun used in a concrete sense (cf. EPN s.v. -en 1 (iv)); in the description of the bdy, Blechene could be taken to refer either to the calcareous spring near Blashenwell Fm described in Hutch3 1 526 and DoNHAS 17 67 ff (springs are marked 6″), or to the stream flowing NNE from the farm into the now unnamed tributary of the Corfe River (v. Hollwysshe water in RNs.). The sporadic forms in Bla (c )k -, Blac - are probably due to influence from the OE adj. blāc 'pale, white' (cf. the OE variation blāc : blǣc and blācian 'to turn pale': blǣcan 'to bleach') or even the OE adj. blæc 'black'. The form Blanchinwell (c. 1586) may contain the noun blanching 'the action of making white' (1600 NED). The 19th-cent. forms with -(k )nowl have no doubt been influenced analogically by Bucknowle and Cocknowle in the adjacent par. of Ch. Knowle infra .For -bridge , v. brycg .