By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 



335 



name from having once belonged to the Priory of Abury, near 

 Marlborough. 



4. The next Ashton named in old documents, but now wholly un- 

 known, was Saucere's Ashton. We find the names of Henry le 

 Saueere, Sybil Saueere and others. This is simply a corruption of 

 the name Salcey, from the old Latin " De Salceto." Salcetum is 

 Latin for a willow-bed. There do happen to be, below, and winding 

 round the " Abury " just named, some celebrated willow-beds, well 

 known and often resorted to, about the month of October, by Mr. 

 Long^s friends, for certain fowl that abound there. This may have 

 been the salcetum which gave the name to Saueere' s Ashton, but the 

 family name of Salcey seems preferable. A Robert de Salceto, of 

 Bishop's Lavington, occurs in 1333 : and a Peter de Salceto is, with 

 a Rector of Trowbridge, witness to one of the charters of Lacock 

 Abbey. 



5, 6, Middle Ashton, and Hurdcote's Ashton, are likewise 

 names found in old documents relating to the Manor of Ashton. 

 In 1255 William Bio wet held two carucates of land in Hurdescote's 

 Ashton, of the Abbess of Romsey. But nothing is known about 

 them now as any part of Steeple Ashton parish. 



7. The last is Sulden, Silden, or East Ashton. About this there 

 is no doubt. It is now called East- town. Why called Sulden, I 

 don't know. Sid, in Saxon, is a plough, and Dene is a valley ; but 

 it is more likely to have been some old family name. There was a 

 I family of Marty n, of East-town, whose pedigree is preserved from 

 1596. It supplied Steeple Ashton with a Vicar, and Chippenham, 

 to which I believe it migrated, with two or three bailiffs or mayors. 



These are all the Ashtons: but the original manor included Henton, 

 Littleton, and Semington. At Henton is a place called Cold-harbour, 

 of which there are no less than 150 in different parts of England. 

 The meaning of the name has been much disputed. Harbour is 

 probably only a corruption of the Saxon Herr-burg, a station. If 

 cold may be supposed to mean cool ; then the whole, "cool-retreat/' 

 may perhaps have been merely a favourite name in former* days, for 

 for villas and country houses, something like the " Mount Pleasant 

 and " Belle View " of our own day. 



