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.

Hasler Hundred

Hundred in the County of Dorset

Historical Forms

  • Haselore hundret c.1086 GeldR
  • (hund' de) Haselor(e) 1198,1199 P 1212 Fees 1244,1268 Ass 1546 Ct
  • Hassellor(e) 1265 Misc 1412 FA
  • Aselore 1268,1280 Ass 1285 FA
  • Hasellore 1288 Ass 1509 BrEll
  • Haselehore 1316 FA
  • Hasyllore 1548 Pat
  • Hasilor 1795 Boswell
  • (hund' de) Haselovere 1210–12 RBE
  • Haseluor 1279 Ch
  • (hund' de) Heselore 1244,1280 Ass
  • (hund' de) Haleslore, Haleslour (sic) 1280 Ass

Etymology

'Hazel slope', from hæsel and ōra (the two forms in -overe and -uor showing confusion or alternation with ōfer 1 'bank' or ofer 2 'hill', cf. Haselor Wa 211). The hundred takes its name from Hasler in Steeple par. infra , a small coppice ½ mile NW of Steeple church on the steep S slopes of the Purbeck Hills, described in Hutch3 1 550 as 'two or three grounds called Hasler. In one of them is a barrow, overgrown with hazlewood, from the plenty of which hereabout the hundred takes its name. Here the hundred court was formerly kept, but at present in a cottage called the West Mill, near Corfe; though still in the hundred' (v. West Mill in Corfe C. par. supra ).

Parishes in this Hundred