>=. = 
eo 
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 229 
built in old times for the accommodation of both, would, on the spot 
and in the neighbourhood, naturally obtain the name of the par- 
ticular manor on which it stood. The registers of Sarum call it in 
the earliest entry, A.D. 1299, “Ecclesia Wyttenham :” in subsequent 
entries, “ Wyttenham a/ids Rowley.” Being built, as by tradition 
it is said to have been, on Rowley, this name prevailed, and the other 
has been lost altogether. 
From what we know of the lands that still bear the name of 
_Rowley, and which lie very much scattered, it would seem that 
(speaking broadly) the “‘ Withenham ” of Domesday represented the 
greater part of the following area. From Stowford by the river to 
Iford, thence in an easterly direction, but in a broken line, along 
Westwood parish boundary as far as, and even a little farther than, 
the cross-roads (between Bradford and Winfield) called “ Dainton’s 
Grave: ” then, southerly, to the present Winfield Manor House, 
and thence back by the present public road to Stowford. Ona 
large county map such as Andrews and Dury’s a general idea of this 
area is easily obtained. This will explain what is otherwise difficult 
to. understand, how “ Withenham” could have been assessed for 5 
hides in Domesday Book. The area just described is now occupied 
by land belonging to the parishes, chiefly of Farley and Winfield, 
between which the ancient lands of Rowley have been divided: but 
it includes also some fields of Westwood, and one or two pieces of 
Bradford parish, all of which it is certain from authentic documents 
were once part of Rowley. 
Descent oF THRE Manor. 
Treating the two manors as one estate, their Saxon owner’s name 
_ in the time of Edward the Confessor was Alvet. At the Conquest 
it was given to Geoffrey de Sancto Laudo (or St. Lo) Bishop of 
Coutances, in Lower Normandy. This foreign ecclesiastic had 
many manors in Co. Somerset; among them, Newton near Bath, 
which still retains the-name of his family. He evidently planted 
his Norman kindred in this part of England: for in Edward I. 
Rowley was held by William St. Lo. (T. de N.) A few deeds of 
ancient conveyance have been met with: and in the oldest, (not 
R2 
