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.

Bradley Hundred

Hundred in the County of Gloucestershire

Historical Forms

  • Bradeleg(e), Bradelei hd' 1086 DB
  • Bradesleah, Bradeslawe 1168,1169 P
  • Bradeleg(e), Bradel', Bradelegh, Bradeley(e) 1184,1204 P 1220 Fees 1221,1248 Ass 1274 RH 1378 Ass
  • Bradley 1535 VE 1540 AOMB242 1587 FF
  • 'the hundred of Whytyngton' in 1478 Pat
  • Wacrescymbe hundredum 11 Heming
  • Wacrescvmbe hd' 1086 DB

Etymology

'The broad clearing', v. brād , lēah ; Bradley from which the hundred is named has not been identified. The hundred is called 'the hundred of Whytyngton ' in 1478 Pat, doubtless because it met there at that period, and there is a lost Bradeleye (188 infra ) which seems to be in Withington (cf. also Bradley in Sevenhampton and the nearby Spellhonger 179, 180 infra ). But these places were in Waclescombe hundred in DB; we should expect the lost Bradley to be in the eastern half of the combined hundred and it might well have been in the neighbourhood of the Fosse Way; in 1400 a meeting of the hundred-court was held near Stowell where the Salt Way crosses the Fosse Way (BG ix, 333).