The Vale of Pewsey: A 10th Century Landscape

Within the Vale of Pewsey can be located the Hundred of Swanborough. It takes its name from the hundred meeting place mentioned in the charter for Manningford Abbots. In the 11th century the Hundred of Swanborough was large and traversed the Vale of Pewsey. To the west were the estates of Stanton St Bernard in the North and Marden (literally meaning 'the boundary dene') and to the east were the estates of Wilcot, Oare and Manningford Abbots. It was assesssed in the Domesday book as 186 hides and was made up of small estates the largest of which was Rushall and Upavon at 40 hides. It has been suggested that Swanborough Hundred was actually a double hundred and made up of two early units divided across the centre.

There are five charters that deal with estates in Swanborough. We shall deal with the largest of these, Stanton St Bernard. The Hundred is made up of two distinct types of estate. Those that stradle both downland and valley bottom (strip parishes) and those that sit on the lush alluvial soils of the valley floor. Stanton St Bernard is one of the former which, like Manningford Abbots has its fair share of downland grazing, arable and meadow land.

The boundary clauses themselves can be useful in locating the various features that comprise an estate's bounds. These, as mentioned, can be analysed collectively. However, there are other ways in which the charters can be of use. Desmond Bonney (1972) commented on the relationship of parish boundaries (and by implication Late Saxon estate bounds) with the Wansdyke. Excepting a 'sub-Roman' date for the dyke (i.e. 350-550 AD) Bonney concluded that because the dyke appears to truncate the estates thereby divorcing fairly small portions from the rest of the estate, its construction must post-date the bounds themselves. Bonney therefore suggests that these units of land must have been created in, or earlier than the sub-Roman period. How can the charter be of use to this debate?

There are two possible solutions to this charter and its location in the landscape. One would appear to support Bonney's assertion the other contradict it. It ultimately depends on whether we believe the perambulation of the Stanton estate to have crossed the dyke at all.

Solution 1. As you can see from the diagram, the estate bounds use the dyke as its northern most limits. This interpretation hinges on a number of facts. First and formost, the dyke is only mentioned once in the charter - the siting of the 'Thieves Rood'. This would mean that the various boundary markers listed between the gallows and the 'Old Way' (which can be located to a reasonable degree of certainty) are bunched up across the lower chalk and south facing scarp of the downs. The presence of so many Stans or 'stones' supports this interpretation in that as often stones where used to demarcate intricate boundaries. Immediately after the reference to the dyke we learn of tha Ealdan Burh - an earthwork enclosure that can be located on the downs today as can the Oxna Mere.

Solution 2. In this instance, the dyke my have been implied by the refernce to a Hlinc Reave - or 'Rough Lynch'. Andrew Reynolds (1999), consciously flouting convention, has located the various boundary stones beyond the dyke and the gallows on the eastern edge of Wansdyke.

Whilst it appears odd that the Wansdyke, a massive and coherent linear earthwork should be refered to as both a 'dyke' and a 'lynch' in the same document, both interpretations are at present valid. Either way, the place of execution is located on Swanborough Hundred's boundary - a locational context in agreement with present thought on Anglo-Saxon judicial practice. It is fully intended, as part of the Mapping Anglo-Saxon Charters Project and The West Saxon Civil Defence Project, to investigate both possibilities to say something of (a) The nature of Anglo-Saxon charter bounds, (b) the date and purpose of Wansdyke and (c) the nature of judicial punishment in Later Anglo-Saxon England.