Old Blandford Road and Blandford Road, Salisbury

Both the Old Blandford Road and the ‘new’ Blandford Road go over Harnham Hill, running south away from Salisbury.

Both roads are so called, obviously enough, because they lead eventually to the town of Blandford Forum, in Dorset.

I don’t know if there is a definitive explanation of the derivation of the name Blandford, but I have a number of alternatives.

Blandford – a ‘bland ford’

The first alternative is just the most obvious derivation – the one I have always assumed to be the case. This is that the name ‘Blandford’ was arrived at because there was a ford across the river, and the ford was ‘bland’ in the sense of ‘calm’ or even ‘uninteresting’.

This would seem to make some sort of sense. Although ‘bland’ is often used in a pejorative sense (e.g. a meal that is bland), blandness would seem to be a virtue for any sort of river crossing.

This derivation seems to be wrong.

Blandford – ‘a ford near land paid for with white money’

The book ‘Local Etymology’, by W.A. Williamson, says that:

The term blench, denotes a land tenure in which the rent was paid in blanc, or white money, from a French coin of that name….Hence many place names: Blanchland, blench-land, a town in Northumberland; Blandford, Dorsetshire, called in Doomsday-Book, Blencford¹

Blandford – grey man’s ford

The ‘thinkbabynames’ website gives yet another derivation:

The boy’s name Blandford \b-la-ndford, bl(an)-dford\ is a variant of Blanford (Old English), and the meaning of Blandford is “gray man’s ford”. ²

Blandford – ford through a river of blay fish

Finally, I think, according to Wikipedia, Blandford is named after the ‘blay’ fish (more commonly known as the ‘gudgeon’ – a small, bottom dwelling fish³), which, presumably, was common in the river. The river is now the River Stour – I guess you would assume that it would have to have been once known as the River of Blay for the town to have been named after the fish.

The Wikipedia page says:

Blandford has been a fording point since Anglo-Saxon times, when it was recorded as Blaen-y-ford and as Blaneford in the Domesday Book, meaning ford of the river of blay or gudgeon. By the 13th century it had become an important market town, with a livestock market serving the nearby Blackmore Vale with its many dairy farms. The Latin word Forum, meaning market, was recorded in 1540.⁴

Update:I have also found that this derivation is supported by Nottingham University’s placenames directory:

POSSIBLY: Ford where gudgeon are found. ⁵

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Footnotes

1. Local Etymology By W. A. Williamson Published by BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008 ISBN 0554493586, 9780554493589 p20. [↩]
2. Think Baby Names – Blandford – name meaning and origin [↩]
3. Gudgeon (fish) – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [↩]
4. Blandford Forum – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [↩]
5. Nottingham University Placenames website [↩]