StoneGloves wrote:
It's onomatapaeic (forgive this spelling). I've been to Halesowen and have a friend in Rock, which is postcode Dudley. 'Dod' = snail, 'ley' = field carved from woodland.
Just for the record, The official line is that Dudley was named after King (or Bishop) Dudder of Mercia ... he had a ley there. It was Dudder's Ley.
However, a dudder was a scarecrow, so it could just have been the field with the scarecrow.
However, a dudder was also a seller of rags (it's where the term 'duds' [originally 'dudes'] comes from for clothes and the word 'dude' for a dressed up person), so it could have been the rag fair in the field or
The Clearing of Dudes!
