It must be understood by all those who read these charters that this ...

THE SAXON LAND CHARTERS OF WILTSHIRE. I ~J\
showing that' common ' holding in the mead was becoming
the exception rather than the rule. In many land-units
the mead, from which, according to the earliest customs
of the AS. village community, the hay had been taken as
one crop, and then divided among the holders in the landunit,
had come to be divided up into allotments, from each
of which a land-holder took his own crop of hay. The
tendency to enclose these allotments with fences is shown
by the prevalence of the field-name ' Ham ' at the present
day on which lands were formerly ' mead.' This is the
AS. hamm, ' enclosure.'
A second charter embracing all the lands of Little
Langford.
B.934; K.446.
RD. A.D. 956.
Granted by King Eadwic to the thegn Byrnric.
Hides. 6.
Name : Aet Langanforde ; aet Langanforda.
Ident. K. Langford, Wilts. ; B. Langford, Wilts.
The extant copy of the charter is of the AS. age ; and,
as far as its language is concerned, may have been contemporary
with the grant. The survey is of a sketchy
character, the landmarks being taken at long intervals.
Survey.
1. Aerest of thare Ea on East Cumb : ' First from the
River to East Combe.'
The survey begins where the E. by. left the Wylye.
But the exact position of this point is not quite certain.
I am inclined to think that it was at a point of the river
\ m. due W. of the village of Serrington, and that the NE.
extension of the parish along the line of the Wylye was
mead which is not included in the by., perhaps because it
was in a separate survey, as mead sometimes is; or perhaps,
and this is more probable, because it was in AS. times the
mead of the land-unit (parish) of Wylye. (See notes on
Wylye, pp. 264, 265.)
The E. by. runs S. from the river up a combe which is
the east combe of the charter. It passes up this combe
about £ m. E. of Grovely Castle (OMi).