Survey of English Place-Names

Etymology

Blands Wath, 1745 NWm 181, 1807 PR (CG), cf. also Blands Gate 1682 NWm 181, Blands birks 1723Surv . These may contain the We family name Bland (cf. Bland Ho ii, 44, Blands ii, 41supra , ii, 152infra ), but there was in this parish a place called the Blande 14Musg , and this looks like a significant word. ON  blanda ('to mix') was used of 'a mixture of two fluids, a blending'; in p.ns. it occurs as a byname Blanda (LindBN), as in Blansby (YN 85) and possibly Norw  Blandhol (NG i, 38); this could be the source of the local surname. But Blanda also occurs as the name of a glacial stream in Iceland, and Bland (YW vi, 264) is the name of a hillside, with what meaning is unknown, unless it denoted something 'mixed up and disorderly' (cf. YW vii, 72 for other types of name for this kind of place). The ford (v. vað ) crossed the Eden.