By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 



229 



built in old times for the accommodation of both, would, on the spot 

 and in the neighbourhood, naturally obtain the name of the par- 

 ticular manor on which it stood. The registers of Sarum call it in 

 the earliest entry, A.D. 1299, "Ecclesia Wyttenham:" in subsequent 

 entries, f e Wy ttenham alias Rowley Being built, as by tradition 

 it is said to have been, on Rowley, this name prevailed, and the other 

 has been lost altogether. 



From what we know of the lands that still bear the name of 

 Rowley, and which lie very much scattered, it would seem that 

 (speaking broadly) the " Withenham 3i of Domesday represented the 

 greater part of the following area. From Stowford by the river to 

 Iford, thence in an easterly direction, but in a broken line, along 

 Westwood parish boundary as far as, and even a little farther than, 

 the cross-roads (between Bradford and Winfield) called " Dainton's 

 Grave : " then, southerly, to the present Winfield Manor House, 

 and thence back by the present public road to Stowford. On a 

 large county map such as Andrews and Dury's a general idea of this 

 area is easily obtained. This will explain what is otherwise difficult 

 to understand, how " Withenham " could have been assessed for 5 

 hides in Domesday Book. The area just described is now occupied 

 by land belonging to the parishes, chiefly of Farley and Winfield, 

 between which the ancient lands of Rowley have been divided : but 

 it includes also some fields of Westwood, and one or two pieces of 

 Bradford parish, all of which it is certain from authentic documents 

 were once part of Rowley. 



Descent of the Manor. 



Treating the two manors as one estate, their Saxon owner's name 

 in the time of Edward the Confessor was Alvet. At the Conquest 

 it was given to Geoffrey de Sancto Laudo (or St. Lo) Bishop of 

 Coutances, in Lower Normandy. This foreign ecclesiastic had 

 many manors in Co. Somerset ; among them, Newton near Bath, 

 which still retains the name of his family. He evidently planted 

 his Norman kindred in this part of England : for in Edward I. 

 Rowley was held by William St. Lo. (T. de N.) A few deeds of 

 ancient conveyance have been met with: and in the oldest, (noi 



