50 Gleanings from the Wiltshire Domesday. 



Osmund, Sarisberie, or Old Sarum, could have been 

 little more than a military fortress ; the town grew round 

 the Cathedral which he founded there, carrying out in 

 this the intentions of his immediate predecessor, Bishop 

 Herman. Now at Laverstock and Winterbourn Ford, 

 both places in the neighbourhood of Old Sarum, you 

 have in Domesday, one Saric entered as an owner (W. 

 Domesd. 143). And he held these manors as Thane-land, 

 and in the former case had inherited the estate from a 

 brother, by name Gest. Is it impossible that, after . all, 

 Sarts-berie may mean simply the " fortress/' or it may 

 be the " hill," of Saric, a name, at all events, that seems 

 to have been borne by holders of land in the neighbourhood. 

 But this of course is mere conjecture, and must be taken 

 for what each thinks it worth. 



Tollard ; — one portion of what is Tollard Royal parish was 

 in the days of the Confessor held by one Toli (W. 

 Domesd. 102) ; possibly the name may be from him, and 

 may mean the enclosure of Toli : — as though Toli-geard, 

 contracted afterwards into lollard. 



Withenham ; this Name (also spelt Wittenham, and Wifcenham), 

 was that of a parish in the Hundred of Bradford (See W. 

 Domesd. 26). Though the name is now lost, a list of its 

 Incumbents from 1299 — 1421 is still preserved. In 

 1428 it was united to Farleigh Hungerford, and is the 

 small portion of that parish which is in Wilts. At the 

 time of Domesda}^ it was held under the Bishop of 

 Coutance by a tenant of the name of Roger (Ibid, %6.J 

 By comparing entries in the Exon Domesday for Somerset 

 relating to neighbouring estates held by the same Bishop 

 (see ff. 128, 132, 134,) we can hardly help the conclusion 

 that he was the same as Roger Witen, and that from his 

 surname Witen-ham derives its appellation. 



Woolley ; — This is the name of a tything in Bradford-on-Avon 

 parish. In Domesday, one Ule (or Wlf) as a King's 

 Thane, held Bodeberie (W. Domesd. 139), a name now 



