Institute of Archaeology University College London
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Home Manningford Abbots The Vale of Pewsey Comments and debate Links	Mapping Anglo-Saxon Charters Project Alex Langlands and Andrew Reynolds
	There are in excess of 840 charters to which have been attached boundary clauses. They provide a rich source for reconstructing the landscape of Anglo-Saxon England and the recovery of ancient Anglo-Saxon estates can be both stimulating and rewarding for local historians and hill walkers alike. Using the electronic version of Sawyer's annotated bibliography of Anglo-Saxon charters see if there is a charter that mentions a parish or estate near to you. Does the charter have an appended boundary clause? You should be able to find a translation or at least a version of that clause in your local library. Armed with a copy of the charter bounds and an OS map (Explorer Range, 1:25 000) see if you can locate the bounds. How closely do they correlate with the modern civil parish boundary? Are any of the boundary marks listed in the clause still in existence in the landscape of today?

Bassett, S. (1989) The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Leicester University Press.

Bonney, D. (1972) 'Early Boundaries in Wessex', in P. J. Fowler (ed.) Archaeology and the Landscape: Essays for L. V. Grinsell. London. pp. 168-86.

Dodgeson, J. M. (1996) ‘The significance of the distribution of English place-names in -ingas, -inga- in south-east England’, Medieval Archaeology, 10, pp1-29.

Fowler, P. J. (1976) 'Agriculture and Rural Settlement', in D. M. Wilson (ed.) The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England. pp. 23-48.

Grundy, G. B. (1919; 1920) 'The Saxon Land Charters of Wiltshire', Archaeological Journal, 2nd Series., xxvi (1919), pp. 143-301; (1920), pp. 8-126

Hooke, D. (1981) 'Open-field agriculture - the evidence from the pre-Conquest charters of the West Midlands', in T. Rowley. (ed.) The Origins of Open-Field Agriculture. Croom Helm: London. pp. 39-63.

Hooke, D. (1998) The Landscape of Anglo-Saxon England. Leicester University Press.

Reynolds, A. J. Life and Landscape in Later Anglo-Saxon England. Stroud: Tempus.

Sawyer, P.H. (1968) Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography. Royal Historical Society.

Contact details

	Alex Langlands Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London, WC1H OPY. E-mail: alexlanglands@yahoo.com Back to top