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.

Pulford, Pulford Bridge, Pulford Brook & Pulford Hall

Major Settlement in the Parish of Pulford

Historical Forms

  • Pulford 1086 DB
  • Pulford Brook & Pulford Lodge 1831 Bry
  • Polford l12 Plea 1297 c.1251–5 Chol c.1300 Sheaf 1315–18
  • Puleford e13 Dieul 1247 1338 Pat
  • passagium de Puleford 1278 Pat
  • Poleford 1254 P 1255(p),1256 Cl 1295–6,1315 Vern
  • Polleford 1258 Pat
  • Pulleford 1260 Court
  • Bulesford 1277 P
  • Bulford 1280 P
  • Poulford 1437 Pat 1645,1699 Sheaf
  • Poulforde 1621 Orm2
  • Poford(e) 1557 Sheaf

Etymology

'Ford on a stream', from pull, pōl 1 and ford , with brycg , brōc , hall , loge . The ford on Pulford Brook (joining R. Dee), an important passage on the road from Chester to Wrexham, was guarded by a castle at Castle Hill infra . It was one of the limits of the Welsh Kingdom of Powys according to a twelfth-century description in the Mabinogion (v. Lloyd 1242 n.76) which records the Welsh form o Porford 'from Pulford' (with assimilation of lr > rr ). For the context of this Welsh form, see Breudwyt Ronabwy , ed. Melville Richards (Cardiff, 1948) 23–4. Professor Richards points out another Welsh form, o bwlffort 13 (15) Llawysgrif Hendregadredd (Cardiff, 1933) 216, in a poem by Llygaid Gŵr to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, describing Llywelyn's domain extending o bwlfforthyd eithaf kedweli 'from Pwlffort (Pulford)…to the limits of Cedweli (i.e. the cantref of Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire)'.