222 Ancient Cirencester, and its Streets and Hundreds. 



another mill known as Langley's Mill. They are both mentioned 

 in 1540. Two closes are described as lying- between the stream 

 running from the late monastery to Langley's Mill on the West, 

 and the great stream on which is built St. Mary's Mill on the East. 

 St. Mary's Mill is described as a " myll with iiii le stockes and a 

 gig myll built on the stream running from the bridge called New- 

 bridge, to the mill, and thence to the Stoney road called Stone cause- 

 way, lying between the meadows Kingsmead and Bradenham." 

 Was the ancient Roman road in those days still pitched ? Rudder 

 says that the only clothing house of his day still employed the same 

 stock mill built, according to Leland, by John Blake the last 

 Abbot. The Beeches is a very old name. In a deed soon after 

 1200, two acres are described as being near Thoreboruve (in other 

 deeds spelled Thoreboruhe, and later on Torberewe, the modern 

 Tarbarrow) which was once part of the land of Richard Thorable, 

 and the other at la Beche outside the Abbot's garden. Another 

 deed of the same date mentions the land le Beches, which lies 

 between the Abbot's wall and le Beches of Robert Archebaud, and 

 the meadow which lies between le Beches and Walfrid Marescal's 

 ford. I presume there was then no bridge by Oxford House. 



With regard to Watermoor, the whole of that part of the 

 neighbourhood seems to have been a moor originally, and Lower 

 Siddiugton is sometimes called Siddington in the Moor. There 

 appears to have been from very early time, a family holding land in 

 the lower part of Chesterton, who took their name de mora from 

 the position of their land, the dwelling house occupying the site of 

 the house now a public house about a hundred yards down the 

 Siddington road, and marked in maps of Cirencester towards the 

 beginning of this century as Watermoor House. There were both 

 Thomas and Michael de Mora in King John's reign, and before 

 that, as appeal's by some ancient manuscript books of theology, 

 copied in the Cirencester Abbey between 1117 and 1176, and at 

 present in the Hereford Cathedral Library, where I was kindly 

 permitted to inspect them, one of the family was among the office 

 bearers in the monastery. There was a Walter de Mora in the 

 reign of Edward III., and either he or another Walter after him 



