Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Godby grange 1537 MinAccts

• Godeby grange 1606 Ipm

• grangia de Blesewelle 1265 BHosp

• grangie de Bleswelle Hy3 Deed

• Blisewell grange 1361 Nichols

• Blesswell Grange 1461 ib

• Bleswell Graunge 1551 Pat

• Blesewelle 1265,a.1277 BHosp

• Bleswelle Hy3 Deed

• Blisewell 1577 Nichols

Etymology

name meaning 'white spot (on a horse's forehead), blaze') or ON  blesi

'a bare spot on a hillside', with OE  wella 'a spring, a stream'. 'The

spring at the bare spot on the hillside' seems the likelier explanation of

the name. There are two such springs near the village, each

topographically suitable, both developing into minor streams which

converge. There are traces of earthworks near the spring at SK 768268.

The grange was an outlier of Garendon Abbey, v . grange.