228 



Rowley alias Wittenliam. 



of Somerset. Below, and within a stone's throw from the Castle, 

 runs the river Frome dividing Somerset from Wilts. On going- 

 down the hill and crossing the county bridge into Wiltshire, you 

 immediately set foot upon the ancient parish of Rowley alias Wit- 

 tenliam. This continues, for a considerable distance, both forwards 

 towards Westwood and Bradford along a lane still called Rowley 

 Lane, and also along the road to the right hand, in the direction of 

 Winfield and Trowbridge. 



The name of Wittenham is not now to be met with anywhere in 

 the district : but it (and not Rowley) is the name of the parish 

 given in the oldest authorities. 



There are two Charters; one of A.D. 987, (being No. 658 in the 

 Codex Diplomaticus,) and the other of A.D. 1001, (printed in this 

 Magazine, vol. v., p. 20,) from which it would seem not unlikely, 

 yet not certain, that Wittenham meant the lands that lie along the 

 river, on the Wiltshire side, between Farley Bridge and Iford. 



It is mentioned next in Domesday Book, as " Withenham 33 only, 

 and assessed at 5 Hides, implying a tract of considerable extent. 

 "Wyt'nam" is again named in the "Nomina Villarum/' A.D. 

 1315, as a « Vill" in the Hundred of Bradford. 



The name of Rowley, on the other hand, is still preserved, and is 

 given to a large portion of the higher ground rising eastward from 

 the river Frome, and to many detached fields now scattered about 

 the parish of Winfield. The name means perhaps Rough Lea; 

 either from the inferior quality of soil, or from its having been for a 

 long time, forest imperfectly cleared. In an old Selwood Forest 

 document of A.D. 1320, at Longleat, which gives the names of all 

 the vills, lands and woods that were included in that Forest before 

 temp. Edward I. (showing that it extended as far as Bradford-on- 

 Avon) , ' ' Winfield, Witenham> Trowle, Westwood and Roule" are 

 mentioned. In an Inquisition 9 Edw. IV., (1470) Wittenham and 

 Rowley are named distinctly as two manors : " the manor of Witten- 

 ham worth 5 marks a year held of the Lord Zouche : and the manor 

 of Rowley worth 40 shillings a year, holden of the Abbess of 

 Shaftesbury 33 (Lady of the Hundred of Bradford) . Here are clearly 

 two separate properties held under different superiors : but a church 



