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.

Rowley Hundred

Hundred in the County of Buckinghamshire

Historical Forms

  • (to ðæm)rugan hlawe 949 BCS883 1200
  • Rovelai 1086 DB
  • Ruelea 1176 P
  • Rugelawe 1227 Ass
  • Ruelowe 1247 Fees

Etymology

Browne Willis (p. 2) states that the site of the Hundred meeting-place lay in certain grounds called Rowley Hill in Lenborough Lordship. This Rowley Hill is clearly the 'rugan hlawe ' (v. ruh , hlaw ) mentioned in the bounds of Chetwode and Hillesden in BCS 883. One would like to determine the exact site but the bounds of that charter are not easy to trace.After leaving the 'rough hill' they go along a little stream (riþig ) to Offa's pool and then up stream to 'Bylian pol' and so across the mead to the sike (v. sic ) and up from the sike to Cowley.Now the present boundary of Hillesden parish runs down a little stream which rises from ½ to ¾ of a mile S.W. of Lenborough and flows into a larger stream which still forms the boundary of the parish and follows that stream as it makes its way up towards Cowley. This would place the 'rough hill' somewhere just north of Stocking Wood. Half a mile north, just out of Hillesden parish, is a well-marked but unnamed hill higher than anything in the neighbourhood (401 ft.) and it is difficult not to believe that this is the actual meeting-place of the Hundred.