302 Ancient Chapels, fyc, in Co. Wilts. 



probable that this portion of it had a little chapel for the 

 convenience of an old manor house here, and of the neigh- 

 bouring hamlet of West Ashton ; both being at a considerable 

 distance from the parish church. This is confirmed by the 

 facts that in 1306, 1389, and 1391, in Inquisitions p. mortem, 

 this place is called Chapel Ashton. There are no vestiges of 

 building, but human bones have been found in " The Wilder- 

 ness," part of the pleasure-ground at the back of Rood Ashton 

 House. 



Rowley: or Rowley alias Wittenham. Two small adjoining 

 manors bearing these names, anciently formed of themselves 

 a small parish on the western border of co. Wilts, about 2| 

 miles west of Bradford on Avon. From Westwood, Wilts, 

 in the parish of Bradford, there is a green lane leading to 

 Farley Hungerford, co. Somerset. About half way between 

 Westwood and Farley, tradition places the site both of the 

 church, and of such few houses as formed the parish of Rowley, 

 alias Wittenham. Another disused lane crosses the aforesaid 

 green lane, and at the point of crossing, in the fields adjoining, 

 may still be seen traces of foundations of houses, &c. The 

 presentations to the Rectory of this annihilated little parish, 

 are found in the Wilts Institutions under the name of Witten- 

 ham. As a parish it was annihilated in this way. The in- 

 habitants being very few, and their church very small and 

 dilapidated, Walter Lord Hungerford, K.Gr., (temp. Hen. VI.) 

 then owner of Farley Castle and all the neighbourhood, 

 obtained leave to unite Rowley, which is in Wilts, to his other 

 adjoining parish of Farley, which is in Somerset. Rowley 

 accordingly now forms the Wiltshire part of the parish of 

 Farley ; the river Frome which there bounds the two counties, 

 dividing them. A copy of Lord Hungerford's deed of union 

 is in my possession. There is a part of the adjoining parish 

 of Winkfield, Wilts, which is also still called by the name of 

 Rowley. It is some stray part of the original Rowley, which 

 through changes of ownership, and confusion of old titles, has 

 probably been lost to the parish of Farley : as the deed of 



