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

THE SAXON LAND CHARTERS OF WILTSHIRE. I ~J\
Charter of the lands of Ham, 4 m. S. of Hungerford.
B.677. K.353.
RD. A.D. 931.
Granted by King Aethelstan to the thegn Wulfgar.
Hides. 9.
Name : Aet Hamme.
Ident. K. ? ; B. Ham, Wilts.
There are two forms of the survey, one in B.677 anc ^
other in B.679. They are both of them of the AS. age ;
and may be of the date of the charter.
Survey.
Only when the survey of B.679 differs from that of
B.677 in some essential point is its reading here quoted in
brackets.
1. Aerast on easteweardan on Lin Leage Geat·. ' First
on the east side to Flax Lea Gate.'
This was at the NE. corner of the parish, a long \ m. E.
of Lower Spray (OMi).
2. And thonne on Lin Leage middewearde : 'Then
through the middle of Flax Lea.'
Flax Lea must have been on the N. part of the E. by.
and on both sides of it.
3. And thonon suthrihte with thara Stan Ceastla : ' And
then due south over against the Small Enclosures surrounded
by a stone (or brick) wall.' 1
Other examples of the use of the term Stan-Ceastel in
the AS. charters would suggest that this referred to the
remains of a Roman villa. Dead reckoning from the neighbouring
landmark shows that it stood near the middle of
the E. by. near Inwood Copse (OM6), nearly i m. ESE. of
Hamspray House (OMi). 2
4. Thonne of, etc. to Pyddes Geat: ' Then from the
Small Stone Enclosures to Pidd's Gate.'
1 1 have had to paraphrase the meaning of
Stan Ceastel in order to convey its true
meaning. Stated briefly, it is arrived at
as follows : Just as the Saxons used Ceasier,
borrowed from the Latin ' castra,' to denote
a fort or camp of the Roman age surrounded
by a wall of masonry, so they seem to have
borrowed from the Latin diminutive
' castellum' the word Ceastel to denote a
small enclosure of the same kind, e.g. such
as would be formed by the walls of a room
of a Roman villa. For further discussion
of this term see English Essays and Studies,
1922, ' On the Meanings of certain terms
in the Anglo-Saxon charters.'
2 Since I determined this site Mr.
O. G. S. Crawford of the Ordnance Survey
has told me that the farmer of this land
turns up the remains of wall foundations at
this point.