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Question
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We are doing a project on invaders at school. Could you tell me if the Saxons lived in Melksham please?
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Question asked on
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04 July 2011
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Answer
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The Saxons certainly did live in Melksham and their village is recorded in the Domesday survey of land for William the Conqueror in 1086. It was then owned by the King and had been owned by King Harold before he was defeated at the Battle of Hastings. There was a church, which was probably built of wood and the name of the priest was Rumold. The small village would have been on the higher ground around the present Church of St. Michael. The Melksham of the Saxons (it was then spelt Melchesham and the name means that the village began as a Saxon dairy farm) would have been a small village with other families living in the surrounding countryside, which they farmed.
The number of people mentioned in the Domesday Book for Melksham is 225, but these were only the heads of household and there may have been some people who were not included. The total population could have been about 980 but of these only 200 - 300 might have lived in the village. We know very little about Saxon Melksham and when it began but it was a big and valuable estate and worth a lot of money to its owner.
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Bibliography
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The Victoria History of Wiltshire, Vol. 7. OUP, 1953
Wiltshire Towns: the archaeological potential, by Jeremy Haslam. WANHS, 1976.
