This year Cuthwin and Ceawlin fought with the Britons, and slew three kings,on the spot called Deorham, and took from them three cities, Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath.”Battle of Dyrham –
Presumed strategy and tactics
TheSevern Valleyhas always been one of the military keys of Britain, and some of the decisive battles of the Saxon conquest were fought to control it. In 577 Ceawlin advanced from the Thames Valley across the Cotswolds to seize the area and break the power of the Britons in the lower Severn area.
Some historians (such as Welbore St Clair Baddeley in 1929) have concluded that the Saxons may have launched a surprise attack and seized the hill fort at Hinton Hill Camp (Dyrham Camp)[4]because it commanded the Avon Valley and disrupted communications north and south between Bath and her neighbouring Romano-British towns of Gloucester and Cirencester.[5]Once the Saxons were in occupation of the site (and had begun reinforcing the existing Iron Age defensive structures at the site) the Britons of those three towns were compelled to unite and make a combined attempt to dislodge them. Their attempt failed and the three opposing British kings were killed (they are named as Commagil of Gloucester, Condidan of Cirencester and Farinmagil of Bath). Their routed forces were driven north of theRiver Severnand south of Bath where it appears they began the construction of the defensive earthwork called theWansdykein a doomed attempt to prevent more territory from being lost.
The military historian Lieutenant-ColonelAlfred Burne, employing his theory of 'Inherent Military Probability' opted for a simpler explanation for the battle than Baddeley.[6]In his view Ceawlin was methodically advancing towards the Severn and the three forces of Britons concentrated to stop him. Burne suggests that they formed up along two slight ridges across the trackway that skirted theForest of Braden, with Hinton Hill Camp behind them as their stores depot – a position similar to that adopted at theBattle of Beranburhin AD 556.[6]Burne pointed out that if the Saxon attack drove the Britons back from their first line onto the second ridge near the edge of the escarpment, the slightest further retreat would leave their flanks open to a downhill pursuit. He speculates that this is what occurred, with the three Briton leaders and their main body being driven back into the fort while the flanking Saxons driving forwards swept round behind the promontory on which the fort stands. A last stand in this position would explain why none of the three Briton leaders was able to escape
The Bishop of Sherborne is an episcopal title which takes its name after the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, England.
The title was first used by the Anglo-Saxons between the 8th and 11th centuries.
It is now used by the Church of England for a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Salisbury.
Diocesan Bishops of Sherborne ,
The Anglo-Saxon Diocese of Sherborne was established by Saint Aldhelm
in about 705 and comprised the counties of Devon, Somerset, Dorset, and Cornwall. The diocese lost territory on the creation of the bishopric of Cornwall in the early 9th century, and lost further territory on the creation of the bishoprics of Wells and Crediton by Archbishop Plegmund in 909.
In 1058, the Sherborne chapter elected Bishop Herman of Ramsbury as their own bishop. He had previously complained of the poverty of his diocese to the extent that, when his plan to become abbot of Malmesbury was blocked by Earl Godwin in 1055, he had abandoned his duties and left to become a monk at St Bertin in France. Following the Norman conquest, the 1075 Council of London united his two sees as a single diocese and translated them to the then-larger settlement around the royal castle at Salisbury (Old Sarum). With papal approval, this was later removed to New Sarum (modern Salisbury) in the 1220s.
Just two small objects from the Neolithic period are all that have been found from that era in the Yeovil area - a leaf-shaped arrowhead and part of a polished stone axehead. These were discovered close to the Hundred Stone which lies on the ridgeway to the north of the town.
This is believed to be a section of the great prehistoric highway,
known as the
‘Harroway’or‘Hoarway’, stretching from Kent to Cornwall and certainly an arterial way of the Bronze Age.
An intriguing discovery, made in 1826 in a quarry near the present Yeovil Junction railway station, did not find its way into print until 1853.
It was then stated that a human skeleton had been found in a sitting position in a stone vault cut into solid rock and covered with a rough stone slab. On one side of the figure was an early Bronze Age beaker six and seven-eighths inches (175mm) high, and on the other side a deer’s horn. Nearby, another chamber contained the skeleton of a horse, while yet another, larger, vault contained ‘an immense quantity of human bones with earth and stones’. It is obvious that these interments followed a local battle in which a leader met his death with many of his followers.
On the Dorchester Road a Bronze Age burial was uncovered in 1926, when road widening was in progress close to where the road leads to East Coker. A rotary, or ‘beehive’, quern for grinding grain, was recovered from the excavations made to construct a garage in Goldcroft, and 1988 a bronze axehead was unearthed on Wyndham Hill.
Perhaps the most important find from this period occurred in 1909 when a gold torc (illustrated above) was found when digging a garden on Hendford Hill. Weighing 5oz 7½ dwt. troy, and with a three-inch (77mm) diameter, it is constructed of composite gold strips and dates from the Middle Bronze Age
SARUM Plain—the Salisbury Plain of our own day—an elevated platform of chalk, extending as far as the eye can reach in broad downs where man would seem to have no abiding place, presents a series of objects as interesting in their degree as the sands where the pyramids and sphinxes of ancient Egypt have stood for countless generations. This plain would seem to be the cradle of English civilization.The works of man in the earliest ages of the world may be buried beneath the hills or the rivers; but we can trace back the labours of those who have tenanted the same soil as ourselves, to no more remote period than is indicated by the stone circles, the barrows, the earth-works, of Salisbury Plain and its immediate neighbourhood.
The great wonder of Salisbury Plain,—the most remarkable monument of antiquity in our island, if we take into account its comparative preservation as well as its grandeur—is Stonehenge.
It is situated about seven miles north of Salisbury.It may be most conveniently approached from the little town of Amesbury.Passing by a noble Roman earth-work called the Camp of Vespasian, as we ascend out of the valley of the Avon, we gain an uninterrupted view of the undulating downs which surround us on every side.
The name of Plain conveys an inadequate notion of the character of this singular district.The platform is not flat, as might be imagined ; but ridge after ridge leads the eye onwards to the bolder hills of the extreme distance, or the last ridge is lost in the low horizon. The peculiar character of the scene is that of the most complete solitude. It is possible that a shepherd boy may be descried watching his flocks nibbling the short thymy grass with which the downs are everywhere covered; but, with the exception of a shed or a hovel, there is no trace of human dwelling. This peculiarity arises from the physical character of the district. It is not that man is not here, but that his abodes are hidden in the little valleys. On each bank of the Avon to the east of Stonehenge, villages and hamlets are found at every mile; and on the small branch of the Wyly to the west there is a cluster of parishes, each with its church, in whose names, such as Orcheston Maries, and Shrawston Virgo, we hail the tokens of institutions which left Stonehenge a ruin . We must not hastily conclude , therefore , that this great monument of antiquity was set up in an unpeopled region ; and that , whatever might be its uses , it was visited only by pilgrims from far-off places ? But the aspect of Stonehenge, as we have said, is that of entire solitude.The distant view is somewhat disappointing to the raised expectation . The hull of a large ship , motionless on a wide sea , with no object near by which to measure its bulk , appears an insignificant thing: it is a speck in the vastness by which it is surrounded. Approach that ship, and the largeness of its parts leads us to estimate the grandeur cf the whole. So is it with Stonehenge. The vast plain occupies so much of the eye that even a large town set down upon it would appear a hamlet. But as we approach the pile, the mind gradually becomes impressed with its real character. It is now the Chorea Gigantum—the Choir of Giants ; and the tradition that Merlin the Magician brought the stones from Ireland is felt to be a poetical
homage to the greatness of the work which are standing and some prostrate , form the-somewhat confused circular mass in the centre of the plan. The outermost shadowed circle represents an inner ditch, a vallum or bank, and an exterior ditch, m, ni.The height of the bank is 15 feet; the diameter of the space enclosed within the bank is 300 feet.The section / shows their formation. To the north-east the ditch and bank run off into an avenue, a section of which is shown at p. At the distance of about 100 feet from the circular ditch is a large gray stone bent forward, a, which, in the dim light of the evening, looks like a gigantic human being in the attitude of supplication. The "direct course of the avenue is impeded by a stone, b, which has fallen in the ditch . A similar single stone is found in corresponding monuments. In the line of the avenue at the point marked c is a supposed entrance to the first or outer circle of stones. At the points d near the ditch are two large cavities in the ground. There are two stones e, and two o, also near the ditch. It is conjectured by some, that these formed part of a circle which has been almost totally destroyed. The centre of the enclosed space is usually denominated the temple. It consists of an outer circle of stones, seventeen of which remain in their original position ; and thirteen to the northeast, forming an uninterrupted segment of the circle, leave no doubt as to the form of the edifice.
The restored plan of Dr. Stukeley show's the original number of stones in this outer circle to have been thirty ; those shadowed on the plan are still remaining.
The upright stones of the outer circle are 14 feet in height, and upon the tops of them has been carried throughout a continuous impost, as it is technically called, of large flat stones of the same width. This has not been a rude work, as we see in the structures called cromlechs, where a flat stone covers two or three uprights, without any nice adjustment: but at Stonehenge sufficient remains to show that the horizontal stones carefully fitted each other, so as to form each an arc of the circle; and that they were held firmly in their places by a deep mortice at each end, fitting upon the tenon of the uprights.
This careful employment of the builder’s art constitutes one of the remarkable peculiarities of Stonehenge.
The blocks themselves are carefully hewn. It is not necessary to add to our wonder by adopting the common notion that the neighbouring country produces no such material. The same fine-grained sandstone of which the greater number of the masses consists, is found scattered upon the downs in the neighbourhood of Marlborough and Avebury. The stones of the second circle are, however, of a different character; and so is what is called the altar-stone, marked f on the ground-plan. Of the inner circle, enclosing a diameter of 83 feet, which appears to have consisted of much smaller stones without imposts, but about the same in [number as the outer circle, there are very few stones remaining. There is a single fallen stone with two mortices g, which has led to the belief that there was some variation in the plan of the second circle, such as is indicated by the letter a on the restored plan. Within the second circle were five distinct erections, each consisting of two very large stones with an impost, with three smaller stones in advance of each: these have been called trilithons.
That marked h in the ground-plan is the largest stone in the edifice, being 21 feet 6 inches in height.
The two trilithons marked i are nearly perfect.
The stones of the trili-thon k are entire; but it fell prostrate as recently as 1797.
The external appearance which the whole work would have if restored, is shown in the perspective elevation .
The internal arrangement
general plan and some details of every great work of art, of ruinous or entire, before the mind can properly apply which belong to it.
In Stonehenge this especially necessary; for however the imagination by the magnitude of those masses of stone which m their places, by the grandeur even of the fragments or broken in'their fall, by the consideration of the vast required to bring such ponderous substances to this desolate spot, and by surmise of the nature of.the mechanical skill by which they were lifted up and placed in order and proportion, it is not till the entire plan is fully comprehended that we can properly surrender ourselves to the contemplations which belong to this remarkable scene.
It is then, when we can figure to ourselves a perfect structure, composed of such huge materials symmetrically arranged, and possessing, therefore, that beauty which is the result of symmetry, that we can satisfactorily look back through the dim light of history or tradition to the object for which such a structure was destined. The belief now appears tolerably settled that Stonehenge was a temple of the Druids.
It differs, however, from all other Druidical remains, in the circumstance that greater mechanical art was employed in its construction, especially in the superincumbent stones of the outer circle and of the trilithons, from which it is supposed to derive its name; stan being the Saxon for a stone, and heng to hang or support. From this circumstance it is maintained that Stonehenge is of the very latest ages of Druidism; and that the Druids that wholly belonged to the ante-historic period followed the example of those who observed the command of the law:
“ If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.” (Exodus, chap. xx.) Regarding Stonehenge as a work of masonry and architectural proportions, Inigo Jones came to the conclusion that it was a Roman Temple of the Tuscan order. This was an architect’s dream. Antiquaries, with less of taste and fancy that Inigo Jones, have had their dreams also about Stonehenge, almost as wild as the legend of Merlin flying away with the stones from the Curragh of Kildare. Some attribute its erection to the Britons after the invasion of the Romans. Some bring it down to as recent a period as that of the usurping Danes. Others again carry it back to the early days of the Phoenicians. The first notice of Stonehenge is found in the writings of Nennius, who lived in the ninth century of the Christian era.
He says that at the spot where Stonehenge stands a conference was held between Hengist and Vortigern, at which Hengist treacherously murdered four hundred and sixty British nobles, and that their mourning survivors erected the temple to commemorate the fatal event.
Mr. Davies, a modern writer upon Celtic antiquities, holds that Stonehenge was the place of this conference between the British and Saxon princes, on account of its venerable antiquity and peculiar sanctity.
There is a passage in Diodorus Siculus, quoted from Hecataeus, which describes a round temple in Britain dedicated to Apollo; and this Mr. Davies concludes to have been Stonehenge. By another writer, Dr. Smith, Stonehenge is maintained to have been “ the grand orrery of the Druids,” representing, by combinations of its stones, the ancient solar year, the lunar month, the twelve signs of the zodiac, and the seven planets.
Lastly, Stonehenge has been pronounced to be a temple of Budha, the Druids being held to be a race of emigrated Indian philosophers.
Startling as this last assertion may appear to be, a variety of facts irresistibly lead to the conclusion that the circles, the stones of memorial, the cromlechs, and other monuments of the highest antiquity in these islands, have a distinct resemblance to other monuments of the same character scattered over Asia and Europe, and even found in the New World, which appear to have had a common origin.
In Great Britain and Ireland, in Jersey and Guernsey, in France, in Germany in Denmark and Sweden, such monuments are found extensively dispersed. They are found also, though more rarely in the Netherlands. Portugal, and Malta in Gozo and Phoenicia.
But their presence is also unquestionable in Malabar, in India, in Palestine, in Persia. Figures 7 and 8 represent a Druidical circle, and a single upright stone standing alone near the circle, which are described by Sir William Ouseley him at Darab, in the province of Fars. in are copied from those in Sir William Ouseley them upon the same page with the If we had obliterated the Oriental figures might easily receive them as from another point of view.
The the general arrangement of Stonehenge, and other similar monuments of Europe, led Sir William Ouseley to the natural conclusion that a “British Antiquary might be almost authorised to pronounce it Druidical, according to the general application of the word among us.” At Darab there is a peculiarity which is not found at Stonehenge, at least in its existing state. Under several of the stones there are recesses, or small caverns. In this particular, and in the general rudeness of its construction, the circle of Darab resembles the Druidical circle of Jersey (9),. although the circle there is very much smaller, and the stones of very inconsiderable dimensions,—a copy in miniature of such vast works as those of Stonehenge and Avebury.
This singular monument, which was found buried under the earth, was removed some fifty years ago by General Conway, to his seat near Henley, the stones being placed in his garden according to the original plan.
book We have
When we open the great store-house not only of divine truth but of authentic history, we find the clearest record that circles of stone were set up for sacred and solemn purposes. The stones which were taken by Joshua out of the bed of the Jordan, and set up in Gilgal, supply the most remarkable example. The name Gilgal itself signifies a circle. Gilgal subsequently became a place not only of sacred observances, but for the more solemn acts of secular government. It was long a controversy, idle enough as ‘'such controversies generally are, whether Stonehenge was appropriated to religious or to civil purposes.
If it is to be regarded as a Druidical monument, the discussion is altogether needless; for the Druids were, at one and the same time, the ministers of religion, the legislators, the judges, amongst the people. The account which Julius Caesar gives of the Druids of Gaul, marked as it is by his usual clearness and sagacity, may be received without hesitation as a description of the Druids of Britain : for he says, “ the system of Druidism is thought to have been formed in Britain, and from thence carried over into Gaul ; and now those who wish to be more accurately versed in it for the most part go thither (/. e. to Britain) in order to become acquainted with it.” Nothing can be more explicit than his account of the mixed office of the Druids: “ They are the ministers of sacred things; they have the charge of sacrifices, both public and private ; they give directions for the ordinances of religious worship (religiones interpretantur).
A great number of young men resort to them for the purpose of instruction in their system, and they are held in the highest reverence.
For it is they who determine most disputes, whether of the affairs of the state or of individuals: and if any crime has been committed, if a man has been slain, if there is a contest concerning an inheritance or the boundaries of their lands, it is the Druids who settle the matter: they fix rewards and punishments : if any one, whether in an individual or public capacity, refuses to abide by their sentence, they forbid him to come to the sacrifices.
This punishment is among them very severe; those on whom this interdict is laid are accounted among the unholy and accursed ; all fly from them, and shun their approach and their conversation, lest they should be injured by their very touch ; they are placed out of the pale of the law, and excluded from all offices of honour.
” After noticing that a chief Druid, whose office is for life, presides over the rest, Csesar mentions a remarkable circumstance which at once accounts for the selection of such a spot as Sarum Plain, for the erection of a great national monument, a temple, and a seat of justice
:—“ These Druids hold a meeting at a certain time of the year in a consecrated spot in the country of the Carnutes (people in the neighbourhood of Chartres), which country is considered to be in the centre of all Gaul.
Hither assemble all from every part who have a litigation, and submit themselves to their determination and sentence.” At Stonehenge, then, we may place the seat of such an assize. There were roads leading direct over the plain to the great British towns of Winchester and Silchester. Across the plain, at a distance not exceeding twenty miles, was the great temple and Druidical settle-itv.
ment of Avebury.
The town and hill-fort of Sarum was close at hand (23).
Over the dry chalky downs, intersected by a few streams easilv forded, might pilgrims resort from all the surrounding
The seat of justice which was also the seat of the highest unity, would necessarily be rendered as magnificent Id accomplish.
Stonehenge might be of a later :Lan Avebury, with its mighty circles and long avenues of tu.Iars : but it might also be of the same period,—the one . sned by its vastness, the other by its beauty of proportion, sriee executed in that judgment-seat was, according to :e?timonv. bloodv and terrible. The rplirrirmc
honour, are extremely provoked, on this oc
The Boundary of Uplyme1
H. S. A. Fox
Text-fig. i
IN 938 King Athelstan granted six hides of land at Lym to his
namesake the Ealdorman Athelstan, and added to the charter recording his gift a clause which describes in detail the boundary of the estate.
At some time later in life the Ealdorman became a monk at Glastonbury, and gave the estate at Lym to the abbey.
Domesday Book records that Glastonbury Abbey possessed two manors called Lym or Lim, one of which can be identified as Lyme Regis in Dorset,
and the other as the neighbouring manor of Uplyme across the county boundary in Devon.3King Athel-stan’s charter was first printed in full by W. de G. Birch in the late 19th century.4Birch took the six hides at Lym to be Lyme Regis, and subsequent authorities have followed his interpretation.5Moreover, an attempt has recently been made to fit the boundary points of the charter to the topography of Lyme Regis parish.
6
The discovery of an early 16th-century description of the boundary of Uplyme,
7part of a survey of the manor made for Glastonbury Abbey in 1516, shows beyond doubt that the Lym of the Saxon charter must be identified as Uplyme and not as Lyme Regis:almost all the points in the boundary clause of the charter recur in the document of 1516.The purpose of this paper is to print the boundary description of 1516 together with the boundary clause of the Saxon charter for comparison, and to lotate the points mentioned in each document.
Before printing the texts, two general observations can be made.
Firstly, any historian attempting to interpret or to criticize a Saxon charter ‘will remain blindfold until it is known where exactly the land lay’.
8
Saxon charters with boundary clauses are among the earliest and most important documents we 1 Notes (numbered a onwards) are collected at the end of the article.
possess for a study of the agrarian history and historical geography of pre-Gonquest England, and it is therefore essential to locate accurately the estates to which they refer.
This exercise often requires a close examination of boundary clauses.For example, an estate om Homme, the subject of a charter of 847, was tentatively located by Birch in Dorset;9forty years ago, F. Rose-Troup correctly suggested that this estate lay in the South Hams of Devon, but claimed that it covered most of the country between Dart and Plym ;10 and not until 1969 did Professor H. P. R. Finberg, after a more critical examination of the charter’s boundary clause, show that the land was in fact centred on Kingsbridge to the west of the Dart.11
The Uplyme charter is another case in point.
Secondly, the existence of a record describing a later perambulation is of the greatest assistance in elucidating the boundary clause of a Saxon charter. As far as is known, this paper is the first to use such a document in order to discover the location of a Saxon estate,
12but it is clear that a similar approach could be more widely adopted, with rewarding results. Descriptions of perambulations can be found among both manorial and parish records13John Norden considered that one of the duties of the surveyor of a manor was to perambulate its boundary, and descriptions of such perambulations were sometimes entered into manorial survey books like the 1516 survey of Uplyme.They might also be entered into the records of the manorial court.For example, two surveys of the manor of Kenton, one made in 1598 and the other in about 1705, begin with a boundary description; while a memorandum concerning part of the boundary was copied into the court book in 1626.14 Parochial boundaries were traditionally perambulated each year on Rogation Day, but more emphasis was placed on memory than on written records in the perpetuation of knowledge about parish limits.18 Sometimes, however, a record was made for preservation among the parish documents.16Thus, in 1613, the Bishop of Exeter instructed Devon incumbents to make and return to him a record of the boundaries of their parishes. Many of these documents have survived, and some describe the boundaries in great detail—the returns relating to Blackawton, Bradninch (where the perambulation took three days to complete), Colaton Raleigh, Cot-leigh and Dean Prior for example.
17
The Boundary in 938
The original of King Athelstan’s charter has not survived. It must have passed with the manor of Uplyme into the hands of Glastonbury Abbey, for it was copied into two of the abbey’s cartularies compiled in the second quarter of the 14th century. One of these cartularies, from which Birch printed the text of the charter, is now in the Bodleian Library;18 the other is at Longleat House19 and has been edited by Dom A. Watkin for the Somerset Record Society.
20
The following text of the Uplyme charter’s boundary clause is taken from Watkin’s transcription.
Istis terminibus predicta terra circumgirata esse videtur.
Erest of se in Sigilmere (1) thanen upon clif (11) ofclive on Faragoren (in) thanen on here path (iv) on Syrdeheved (v) thanen on Mappillecnap (vi) of Huneforde (vn) thanen on the sour apildure (vm) of the Waynlete (ix) thanen on enlipesexe-berghes (x) on here path (xi) forth on here path forth bi than combesheved (xii) to than rede wey (xm) thanen on Lullisburghe (xiv) to Crowanstaple (xv) of than staple to Daliesberghe (xvi) on Monnisclive (xvn) thanen to Estbroke (xvm) on doune on strem on Saltforde (xix) of Saltforde on tha Sweluende (xx) thanen on Lym (xxi) of Lym up on the hasil (xxn) of than hasil on Somersete (xxm) of Somersete on Werboldiston (xxiv) thanen up to than Weygate (xxv) on Wythilake (xxvi) eft out on se (xxvn).
The Boundary in 1516
In the second decade of the 16th century, Glastonbury Abbey caused a great survey of its estates to be made. Officials were sent to each of the abbey’s manors to compile a field by field description, or terrier, of all the holdings. They were also charged with perambulating the boundary of each manor and making a record of the perambulation. The results of this activity are preserved in a series of volumes, each of which contains the surveys of a number of manors.21 Some of the surveys are incomplete, giving the terriers in full, but leaving blank pages on to which it was intended to copy the boundary descriptions. Fortunately Uplyme is one of the manors for which the boundary description was copied into the survey volume.
The description makes reference to contemporary landowners (Lady Harrington and the Abbot of Newenham for example) and to several minor features not recorded in the Saxon charter, such as the ‘thorn tree at Holcombehed’ and ‘a certain ash called LangshereayssK. This confirms that it was the result of an actual perambulation made at Uplyme in 1516. It also contains almost all the points mentioned in the Saxon charter, even such transient features as a hazel tree; and it still refers, archaically, to the here path of the earlier document. It seems likely, therefore, that those who perambulated the boundary in 1516 had available for their guidance some older document setting out the boundary of the manor. We know that part of the boundary was perambulated in about 12 75,22 and that another perambulation was made in 1324.23 The surveyors of 1516 may well have had access to records concerning these earlier perambulations, or, possibly, to a copy of the charter of 938.
The description of 1516 runs as follows:
Precinctus manerii ibidem Incipiendo in orientali parte domi ibidem apud la Glyffe maris existentem in australi parte de Segimere (1) & sic per dictum Cliffe directe per litus maris usque occidentem usque Merkehegge iuxta terram Domine de Dunfrefelde modo domine Aryngdon (2) & deinde borialiter per sepem pre-dictam ultra montem usque Brodepathe (3) inde directe borialiter usque Brodestrete alias brodewaie (4) & deinde per viam predictam occidentaliter usque harepathe (5) & exinde borialiter usque Mapulknappe qui est bunda inter terram Domini de Newnham et terram Domini de Uplyme (6) & deinde borialiter usque Soureappuldore (7) & deinceps borialiter usque holcombelane (8) & sic directe borialiter usque la thorne apud holcombehed (9) & deinde usque Monkesdyche (10) et sic per ffosatum predictum usque la northende eiusdem fossati Wocombehedde (11) & sic directe borialiter usque sex puteos (12) & exinde borialiter usque le pytte apud Byttecombecombeshed (13) & deinde Northe & Northeest usque Redeweye apud Broroshete (14) & abinde orientaliter usque Lullesburowhe modo inclusum per Abba-tem de Nwynehame iuxta ffurshyldowne (15) & deinde orientaliter usque le ffurches (16) & sic directe orientaliter usque Crowstabull (17) & abinde ad orientem australi ter usque Dallesborgohe (18) & exinde australi ter & orientaliter usque Monescleffe (19) & abinde australiter usque Est-browke (20) & deinde directe australiter per cursum aque usque Salteford alias dictum Warlackeford (21) & abinde australiter usque Swalomedesende (22) & exinde australiter usque le Whytwythy (23) & sic directe usque la hasell (24) & deinde ad quandam venellam vocatam Sherelane (25) & sic directe ad quandam fraxinum vocatam Langshereayssh (26) & exinde per occidentalem ffinem tenementi nuper Johannis Ghynehame (27) & deinde australiter ad quandam sepem inter Comitatus Devonie & Dorset que extendit versus australem usque Somersettlane (28) & abinde australiter in longum dicte venelle usque Colyfordeweie (29) & a dicta via australiter usque warbulstone (30) & exinde australiter usque Wythelake (31) & sic directe ad quandam spinam apud Wythemore (32) & abinde directe australiter usque Wacheknappe (33) & exinde usque Segemere super mare et ibidem ffiniendo ubi superius mete et bunde predicte erant incepte (34).
Locational Analysis
In the following section a translation is given of the boundary descriptions of 938 and 1516, and the points mentioned in each are located on a map (Fig. 1).
The numbers in the left-hand margin below, and on the map, refer to the texts in the preceding two sections of this paper.
The Saxon boundary points have been given Roman numerals, and those of the 1516 document have been given Arabic numerals. Most of the points can be located precisely, but any uncertainty about an exact location is indicated below and on Fig. 1. Grid references are best followed on Ordnance Survey 2J2- sheet SY 39.
The derivations of the place-names in the Saxon charter have already been discussed by Dr. C. Hart,24 and most of his interpretations are used here. Translations of place-name elements have been taken from A. H. Smith’s English place-name elements (2 vols. Cambridge, 1956).
The location of the points mentioned in the two documents shows that the boundary of Uplyme manor followed a course almost identical with the course of the old parish boundary of Uplyme. Today the parish contains a small area ofland around Shapwick Grange which formerly constituted a detached part of Axminster parish, and which was transferred to Uplyme in 1884. Prior to that date, the western section of the Uplyme
Fig. i. The boundary of Uplyme.
The Roman numerals refer to the Saxon chapter {p. 37) and the arable numerals to the 1516 description {p. 38)
parish boundary ran about half a mile to the east of its present course.25 Apart from this recent alteration, the boundary of Uplyme, both manor and parish, has remained unchanged since the early 10th century.
I, First from the sea at Sigilmere;
1. Beginning on the east side of the house there at the sea cliff being
on the south side of Segimere;
The boundary began in the vicinity of Devonshire Head (3339I4)• English (O.E.) mere can mean ‘sea pool’, and perhaps refers to the small rock-bound bay beneath the headland.
II. then up onto the cliff;
2. and thus by the said cliff directly along the coast towards the west
end of the boundary hedge next to the land of the lady of Dunfre -felde, now Lady Aryngdon;
To 319910. Dunfrefelde is a corruption of Downhumfraville, a manor which included the farm of Pinhay. Pinhay Farm lies behind the coast slightly to the west of the boundary.28 The ‘Lady Aryngdon’ of the 1516 document was a member of the Harrington family.
III. from the cliff to Faragoren;
3. and then northwards by the aforesaid hedge, beyond the hill to Brodepathe;
4. thence northwards straight to Brodestrete alias brodewaie;
Along the parish boundary to the A. 35 at 318916. Faragoren probably means ‘fern-covered point of land’, some minor topographical feature in this vicinity. Brodepathe may have been a continuation of the lane which runs eastwards to Pinhay Farm; Brodestrete is the A. 35 farther inland.
IV. then to the army path;
5. and then westwards along the aforesaid way to the army path;
The old parish boundary followed the A. 35 westwards as far as 315915, and then struck north along a foot-path. This may be the ‘army path’ (kere-path) of both documents, although the term was usually given to more prominent routeways.
V. to Syrdeheved-,
VI. then to Mappillecnap;
6. and thence northwards to Mapulknappe which is the bound between
the land of the lord of Newenham and the land of the lord of
Uplyme;
O.E. sierett means ‘dry barren place’; O.E. heafod is commonly used in the sense ‘hill-top’. The ‘dry hill-top’ of the earlier document is probably^ie ridge between two combes at 316919. O.E. cnapp also means ‘hill-top’. The ‘hill-top with the maple tree’ must therefore be in the same vicinity. The ‘lord of Newenham’ was the abbot of Newenham Abbey, the owner of Shapwick Grange which here lies to the west of the boundary.
VII. from Hmeford;
VIII. then to the crab apple tree;
7. and then northwards to Soureappuldore;
The ‘honey ford’, or ‘Huna’s ford’ is at 315922 where the boundary crossed a small stream. The crab-apple tree may have stood at 312929 where there is a sharp change in the direction followed by the old parish boundary.
IX. from the lane junction;
8. and next northwards to holcombelane;
The Holcombelane of the later document is the path to Holcombe Farm .which crossed the boundary at 310930. The Waynlete of the earlier document is probably derived from O.E. weg (ge)lat, ‘junction of roads’; but there is no junction here now.
X. then to enlipesexeberghes;
XI. to the army path;
XII. along the army path by the combe’s head;
9. and thus northwards straight to the thorn tree at holcombehed',
To 305936 where the head of the combe in which Holcombe Farm is situated touches the parish boundary. The Saxon document contains two additional boundary points: enlipesexeberghes, probably the ‘hill of the solitary ash’ from O.E. anliepe, esc, beorg; and another ‘army path’. The former refers to the slope of Shapwich Hill, but the latter cannot be identified. A pronounced ditch and bank can be seen along this section of the boundary.
XIII. to the red way;
10. and then to Monkesdyche;
11. and thus by the aforesaid ditch to the north end of the said ditch
(at) Wocombehedde;
12. and thus northwards straight to the six pits;
13. and thence northwards to the pit at Byttecombecombeshed;
14. and then north and north-east to liedeweye at Broroshete',
The section ends at 316964 on the A. 373, the ‘red way’ of both documents. This place is today called Burrowshot Cross {Broroshete in 1516); while the name Red Cross, farther to the east along the A. 373, perpetuates the ‘red way’ of both perambulations. The later record is far more detailed than the earlier for this section, perhaps because the boundary here ran across Trinity Hill which was probably wild and devoid of features which could be used as boundary points in the ioth century. Today, the vegetation in this vicinity consists of heath and scrub, so that it is impossible to identify the Monkesdyche and the six pits mentioned in 1516. Wocombehedde is probably the head of the combe now known as Woolly Goyle at 307953. Byttecombecombeshed cannot be identified with certainty, but may be the head of the stream running westwards from 303959.
XIV. then to Lullisburghe\
15. and thence eastwards to Lullesburowhe, now enclosed by the abbot of Newenham next to ffurshyldowne;
Lullisburghe is ‘Lulla’s hill’, from O.E. beorg, ‘hill’. A derivation from O.E. burh, ‘fortification’, is improbable for there are no traces of earthworks in this vicinity. This point must be near the hill-top at 325964. An 18th-century estate map of Ax-minster shows that Furzley Down, which belonged to Furzley Farm, another grange of Newenham Abbey, extended as far as the Uplyme parish boundary in this neighbourhood.27
XV. to Crowanstaple;
16. and then eastwards to the gallows;
17. and thus eastwards straight to Crowstabull;
The ‘crow’s post’ was probably at Red Cross (325961). The ffurches of the 1516 document were gallows, normally placed on a parish boundary, as at Colaton Raleigh, Kenton and Sidbury in Devon.28 The Uplyme gallows must have stood on the boundary to the west of the crow’s post.
XVI. from the post to Daliesberghe;
18. and thence south-eastwards to Dallesborgohe;
‘Dalla’s hill’ must be the present-day Penn Hill at 341955.
XVII. to Momisclive;
19. and thence south-eastwards to Monescleffe;
‘Manna’s cliff’is almost certainly the slope below the A. 373 at 34I953- The top of this slope falls away sharply, and appears cliff-like when viewed from below.
XVIII. then to Estbroke;
20. and thence southwards to Estbrowke;
To 338951 where the parish boundary reaches a small, and today nameless, tributary of the Lim,
XIX. down stream to Salteforde;
21. and then southwards straight along the watercourse to Salteford, otherwise called arlackeford;
The boundary followed the stream for about a mile and a half to 333933 where there is still a ford today. A charter of 77429 and entries in Domesday Book30 record salt working at Lyme Regis. The ‘salt ford’ must be where a salt way inland from the sea crossed Estbroke.
XX. from Salteforde to the whirlpool;
22. and thence southwards to Swalomedesende;
Immediately to the south of 333933, between the ford and the meeting of Estbroke with the Lim. The sweluende of the earlier document is derived from O.E. swelgend, ‘whirlpool’.
XXI. then to Lym;
23. then southwards to the white willow;
The Saxon boundary reached Lym (i.e. the River Lim) at
334933- The ‘white willow’ of the 1516 document probably
stood at this point.
XXII. from Lym up to the hazel;
24. and thus straight to the hazel;
Probably to 333932 where the parish boundary changes direction.
XXIII. from the hazel to Somersete;
25. and then to a certain lane called Sherelane;
26. and thus straight to a certain ash called Langshereayssh;
27. and then by the western limit of the tenement lately John Chyme-
hame’s;
28. and thence southwards to a certain hedge between the counties of Devon and Dorset, which stretches southwards to Somersettlane;
Somersete and Somersettlane are probably derived from O.E. sumor sate, ‘summer seat’. The element -sate occurs several times in Devon in the names of places situated on or near hills;31 and a derivation from Old Norse satr, ‘mountain pasture’, is improbable for this county. At Uplyme, the prominent hill to the south of the village must be implied, its summit being at 327923, very close to the parish boundary. The lane running over the top of this hill is still called Shire Lane, and is so marked on the 6-in. map. In 1516 this lane may have extended down the hill to the village, being called Sherelane for the northern part of its course, and Somersettlane for the southern part on the hill-top. The ‘ash called Langshereayssh' probably Stood at 328923 where the Jane changed direction. The name derives from O.E. land-scearu, ‘boundary’, a word which frequently occurs in Saxon charters from the west of England,32 and which was still being used in its original sense in 17th-century Devon.33 As the 1516 record tells us, the manor boundary along this section followed the county boundary between Devon and Dorset.
XXIV. from Somersete to Werboldiston;
29. and thence southwards along the said lane to Colyfordeweie;
30. and from the said way southwards to warbulstone;
Werboldiston should probably be rendered ‘Wernbeald’s tun’ or farmstead. It is now Ware House near the parish boundary at 329919. The Colyfordeweie of the later document is the A. 35 from Colyford to Lyme Regis, which the boundary crossed at 32992I-
XXV. then up to the cart gap;
XXVI. to Wythilake;
31. and thence southwards to Wythelake;
Wythilake, ‘willow stream’, must be the small stream which begins near the parish boundary at 332918. The stream runs in a narrow valley which carries a small road crossed by the parish boundary at 331918. This is probably the ‘cart gap’ (O.E. wtegn, geat) of the Saxon document.
XXVII. then out to sea.
32. and thence straight to a certain spinney at Wythemore;
33. and thence southwards straight to Wacheknappe;
34. and thence to Segemere upon the sea, there ending where the aforesaid metes and bounds began, as above.
The Wythemore of the later document can be translated ‘boggy ground with willows’ (O.E. withig, mor); Wacheknappe means ‘look-out point’ (O.E. wacu, cntepp'). Both must have been situated on the last section of the boundary but cannot be identified on the ground, perhaps because the surface here has been greatly modified by land slipping. As the later document tells us, the boundary ended at Segemere (333914),34 the point at which it began.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am most grateful to Professor H. P. R. Finberg and Dr. C. Hart for helpful discussions in Cambridge; to Mr. D. Sherlock of the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate, Ministry of Public Building and Works, for going over the ground with me at Uplyme; and to Mr. R. Blackmore, who drew the map.
Notes
3. D.B. f. 77b. The Glastonbury manor at Lyme Regis later became known as Colway: Victoria County History of Dorset, vol. 3, p. 74.
3. D.B. f. 103b.
4. W. de G. Birch, Cartularium Saxonicum (3 vols. London, 1885-93), no. 728. The charter had been printed earlier, but without the boundary clause, in W. Dugdale, Monastkon Anglicanum (ed. J. Caley, H. Ellis and B. Bandinel, 6 vols. London, 1819-30), vol. 1, p. 50; and in J. M. Kemble, Codex diplomaticus aevi Saxonici (6 vols. London, 1839-48), no. 3725. H. P. R. Finberg, The early charters of Wessex (Leicester, 1964), no. 582;
P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon charters: an annotated list and bibliography (London, 1968), no. 442.
6. C. Hart, 'Some Dorset charter boundaries’, Proc. Dorset jVat. Hist, and Arch. Soc., 86 (1965), pp. 160-1.
7. British Museum. Eg. MS. 3134. f. 216-216 v.
8. H. P. R. Finberg, ‘Some Crediton documents re-examined’, Antiquaries Journal, 48 (1968), p. 85.
9. Cartularium saxonicum, no. 451.
10. F. Rose-Troup, ‘The new Edgar charter and the South Hams’, Trans. Devon. Assoc., 61 (1929), pp. 266-76.
11. H. P. R. Finberg, West country historkal studies (Newton Abbot, 1969), pp. 11-23.
12. F. Rose-Troup compared the Saxon boundary of Ottery St. Mary with a boundary description made in 1612, but the location of the estate was not in question: ‘The Anglo-Saxon charter of Ottery St. Mary’. Trans. Devon. Assoc., 71 (1939), pp. 201-20.
13. The following notes relate only to post-medieval records. Descriptions of medieval perambulations also exist: for example, 14th-century boundary descriptions of the Glastonbury manors of Wrington and Lympsham (British Museum. Eg. MS. 3321. f. 155 and f. 190 v.).
14. Devon Record Office. i5o8M/Lon./estate/valuations/4; i5o8M/sur-veys/Kenton/6; 15o8M/Lon./manor/Kenton/2.
15. An account of perambulations of this kind is given in pp. 28-31 of ‘A journey along boundaries’, being ch. 2 of M. W. Beresford, History on the ground: six studies in maps and landscapes (London, 1957).
16. W. E. Tate, The parish chest (Cambridge, 1969 ed.), p. 74.
17. Devon Record Office. Glebe terriers.
18. MS. Wood empt. 1.
19. MS. 39.
20. A. Watkin (ed.), The great chartulary of Glastonbury (Somerset Record Society publications, 3 vols. Frome, 1947-56), vol. 3, p. 577.
21. The volumes are British Museum Eg. MS. 3134 (which includes the survey of Uplyme); Eg. MS. 3034; Harl. MS. 3961; and Society of Antiquaries MS. 653. They have been described by R. Fowler, ‘The last pre-dissolution survey of Glastonbury lands’, British Museum Quarterly, 10 (1935-6), pp. 69-72.
22. A. Watkin, op. cit., p. 580.
23. British Museum. Eg. MS. 3321. f. 273 v. This is an incomplete record of the course of the boundary, part of a survey of Uplyme made in 1324. Unfortunately, only the first section of the boundary is described,
24. C. Hart, op. cit.
25. W. H. Wilkin, ‘Axminster notes. Part II’, Trans. Devon. Assoc., 68 (1936), P- 359- On Fig. 1, the old parish boundary is shown, taken from the Uplyme tithe map at the Devon Record Office.
26. Devon Record Office. 123M/E/31.
27. Devon Record Office. T. 7.
28. Devon Record Office. Glebe terriers; Devon Record Office. 1508M/ Lon./estate/valuations/4; Public Record Office. E. 134/5 Jas. i/Mich. 1.
29. Cartularium Saxonicum, no. 224.
30. D.B., f. 77b and f. 85.
3t. J. E. B. Gover, A. Mawer and F. M. Stenton, The place-names of Devon
(2 vols. Cambridge, 1931-2), pp. 201, 245, 329 and 529.
32. The word and the distribution of the charters in which it occurs are fully discussed in A. S. Napier and W. H. Stevenson, The Crawford collection of early charters now in the Bodleian Library (Oxford, 1895), pp. 48-9.
33. At Ashburton and Sidbury, for example: Public Record Office. E. 134/2 Jas. i/Hil. 15 and E. 134/5 Jas. i/Mich. 1.
34. There have been several recent land slips in this vicinity. It is interesting to note that coastal erosion, probably closely connected with land slipping, was recorded near here in the thirteenth century: A. Watkin, op. cit., p. 582.
Rivers and navigable creeks, p. 36. Tamar, Lynher, p. 38. Tide, or Tidi, p. 40. Seaton, ib.
Loo, or Eaft-Loo, ibid. ProfpoCt of Loo Bridge," ib. Duloo, or Weft Loo river, p. 41. fawy, ib.
Fal, 42, and it’s harbour. Hel, or Heyl river in Kerricr, p. 43. Lo or Low river in Kerrier, p 44.
A1
Heyl in Penwith, ibid. Ganal creek, p. 45. River Alan, al Lamel, ibid. Wade navigable rivers in
may be made notbeneficial, p. 47. Subject: to obftrudtions, p. 49.
