Welsh Journals

out at Billingsley, five miles south-east of Hereford, near Bolstone (SO 5632). On 16 June 1056 Bishop Leofgar led a new attack on the Welsh, but his forces were cut to pieces by Gruffudd at the river Machowy or Bach Howey, which enters the Wye at a point five miles west-north-west of Glasbury, Radnorshire (SO 1042). After this the English government again had to negotiate peace with Gruffudd.5 The records of the 1050s show intense military activity in the Hereford- Radnorshire area. It is thus reasonable to locate 'Bulendun' in this region, where Bullen's Bank would be a good place for an ambush. If an English force received intelligence of Rhys's movements, it might advance along Golden Valley to the pass and await him as he climbed upwards from the west, withdrawing quickly once he was dead. Although Herefordshire has not yet been treated by the English Place- Name Society, we can support identification of 'Bulendun' with Bullen's Bank by reference to Bullington, seven miles north of Winchester (SU 4541). Attested as Bulandun in 1002, Bolende in 1086, and Bolyndon in 1316, this means either 'hill of Bula, hill-pasture of Bula' or 'bull's hill'.6 'Bulendun' on the Welsh border can therefore be understood as 'bull's hill' or 'hill of bulls' (bulena dun), or, more probably, 'Bula's hill, Bula's hill- pasture'. If Bullington derives from Bulandun, then Bullen's Bank may derive from 'Bulendun', the last element having changed in both cases. Once early forms of the name of Bullen's Bank are published, we shall know if we can identify it as 'Bulendun' or not. If we can, this sharpens our focus on an event with dramatic consequences for Radnorshire history: an English government assassination of January 1053, when picked men eliminated a Welsh military leader on a hill-side facing Clyro, and took his severed head quickly to Gloucester, where the king was preparing for the feast of Epiphany. NOTES 1 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, tr. MJ Swanton (London, 1996), p. 182. His 'Twelfth Night' is erroneous: the Old English refers to 5 January, Eleventh Night. 2 English Historical Documents 1042-1189, ed. DC Douglas and GW Greenaway (London, 1953), p. 209. 3 JE Lloyd, A History of Wales (London, 1911), pp. 362-3; The Dictionary of Welsh Biography (London, 1959), p. 318; Wendy Davies, Wales in the Early Middle Ages (Leicester, 1982), p. 106. 4Swanton, p. 184. 5 Lloyd, pp. 363-8; FM Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd edn (Oxford, 1971), pp. 572-4. 6 Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 4th edn (Oxford, 1960), p. 73.