pias eS 
Short Notes. 195 
by Nore-Marsh, up Stoneover Lane, and thence by a road which is said 
to have existed by Midgehall Farm to Shaw, there appears to have been a 
way to Highworth. There was also another lane which is now disused, 
called Vowley Lane. This was between Wootton Fields Farm and Taylor’s 
Field on Nore-Marsh Farm. The correct name, however, is Fowl Hill. 
There were several pieces of land of this name to which the lane led, 
and instead of ‘ Bishop's Fowley’ the farm ought to be called ‘ Bushey 
Fowlhill,’ that being the name in old documents. There is another bridle 
road, the knowledge of which has probably almost passed away. It com- 
menced at Upper Greenhill, and passed along the south side of the parish, 
from thence to Bushey Vowley, or Fowlhill, by Wootton Fields Farm, and 
between the glebe (called Rudlands) and Goldborough in Broad Town 
parish. The footpath from Tockenham and Lyneham originally crossed 
the brook on the lower or north side of the canal aqueduct by means of 
some very large stones, which formed a bridge. One of them was dragged 
out by four horses in 1842 and utilised on a neighbouring farm. It is 
probable that the field named the Wores (there were three of that name) 
was so called from being close to the mill pond. A wear, or weir, is a dam 
or stank, so that it is probable that ‘ The Weirs’ is the proper name. The 
Weir at Broad Hinton, and Whyr Farm, are probably derived from the 
same source. About 1793 the turnpike road from Swindon to Christian 
Malford Bridge was in use, and that part between Hunt’s Mill Bridge and 
the Red Lion at Hillocks, Lyneham, was entirely new. The old road leading 
from Wootton Bassett to Chippenham went up where the canal bridge now 
is, up the hill on the right a little way beyond it, thence through the upper 
part of Little Park Farm, by Woodyates (or Wood Gate) and along towards 
Tockenham, passing at the bottom of the Cowleaze at Queen’s Court Farm, 
where there are several pollard sycamore trees which were once in the hedge 
belonging to the road. It then passed the village of Tockenham on the 
north side, went by Shaw House Farm, and thence to the Red Lion. The 
turnpike house in Wootton Bassett parish at Coped Hall would seem to have 
been used as such, according to the census, in 1793, but that at the west end 
of the town at Whitehill Lane was not built then. There was a date on 
the beam (1797) when it was pulled down in 1879. From where Whitehill 
Lane widens below the cottages, or rather did, for it has recently been 
enclosed and added to the adjoining fields, it was called Broadway. What 
is now Hooker’s Gate in ancient times was called Faafe Gate, and was 
where the ‘ Duke went forth.’ There was an enclosure of oak trees there, 
called Woakhay (or Oak Hay), and a ‘ Woak Hay mead.’ This must have 
been corrupted into Hooker’s. 
“There was formerly a wood called Calo Wood, consisting of a hundred 
acres, about where Mr. Tuck’s farm is at Highate. After the Agricultural 
Riots of 1830 a large piece of land on the north of the road was broken up 
there, and used as allotments by the labourers of the parish, which was 
christened by them ‘ New Zealand,’ and another piece of land on the south 
side was used for the same purpose, and called ‘ High Beggars.’ 
“The Act of Parliament for enclosing the common land in this parish 
was obtained in 1819, and the commissioner appointed was Mr. Decimus 
