834 Rood Ashton, Sc. 
only holding for some one else: for two years afterwards, 1391, John 
Crouchton dies owner. 
The manor of Ashton Giffard (then called Ashton Dunstanville), 
also belonged to this person: and as in 1396 he was succeeded in 
that estate by Nicholas Temys, it is reasonable to suppose that Chapel 
or Rood Ashton passed at the same time to the family of Temys, for 
that is the next name wecome to. In the pedigree of Temys, in the 
Wilts Visitation dated 1565, the first name is John Temys, of Rood 
Ashton, c. 1454. Of this family was Joan Temys, the last Abbess 
of Lacock, and it was, I believe, her brother who sold Rood Ashton, 
about 1530. The purchaser was Sir William Button, of Alton and 
of Tockenham. His family sold it about 1600, to Edward Long, of 
Monkton, in Broughton Gifford. 
That there was a house on the site in 1389 has been mentioned. 
In the year 1814 some sound beams were taken out with a very old 
date upon them. It has always been said that the date was 1178; 
but I never saw them. ‘The present house is an old one with new 
front, &e., added in 1835. 
There is a very large field between Rood Ashton and Steeple 
Ashton, called Abury. It was formerly a custom ground, into 
which certain farmers and tenants had right of putting in cattle for 
certain months. At the sound of this name, no wonder that Wilt- 
shire Archxologists prick up their ears, remembering the great 
puzzle already on their hands, near Marlborough. But in the 
« Abury” near Rood Ashton there is no graffe, and no mighty stones. 
So why it is so called one can hardly say. My own impression is, 
that this ground once belonged to the Priory of Abury, near Marl- 
borough, because, when that priory was dissolved, its lands, wherever 
situate, were bought by Sir William Sherrington, of Lacock; and 
it is curious enough, not only that in Mr. Long’s survey of 1604, I 
find the name of Sir William Sherrington as an owner of lands near 
Rood Ashton; but that the size of his estate was as nearly as 
possible the size of the large ground called Abury. Further, in 
the survey, Sir William is described as having bought his land near 
Rood Ashton from the Crown in 1547, which was just at the time 
of the Dissolution. The ground therefore may perhaps take its 
