English Place-name Society

Survey of English Place-Names

A county-by-county guide to the linguistic origins of England’s place-names – a project of the English Place-Name Society, founded 1923.

Doddingtree Hundred

Hundred in the County of Worcestershire

Historical Forms

  • Dodintret, Dodintreu, Dodentreu 1086 DB
  • Dudintree c.1150 Surv 1175 P
  • Dodintre 1276 RH

Etymology

Doddingtree Hundred occupies the north-west of the county.It consisted in DB of 38 manors and was assessed at 120¾ hides.The hundred-court was held in Great Witley on the Abberley Hills, near the building known for two centuries as the Hundred House. The site is fixed for us by the statement of Heming (254) that certain land called Rydmerlehge , i.e. Redmarley in Great Witley, is 'juxta duddantreo sita .' This gives us the earliest form of the name and shows that it is 'Dudda 's tree,' a pers. name found elsewhere in the Hundred in Doddenham and Doddenhill infra 46, 58. The naming of the hundred meeting- place from a tree is exceedingly common, cf. Wimburntree infra 87.