Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• (to) rammesburi (yate), (of) rammesburi 947 BCS828 14th

Etymology

Ramsbury (lost), (to ) rammesburi (yate ), (of ) rammesburi 947 (14th) BCS 828. This is a landmark in the bounds of the Glastonbury estate at Ashbury. It is worth detailed discussion here, because the form is cited both in W 287 and in DEPN as a form for Ramsbury W. Ramsbury in W is at least 7 miles S., however, and it seems unlikely that it could be named from the Ashbury boundary mark. It is possible to speculate about the position of this landmark, because one of the preceding features, (to þan ) widen yate , may be identical with a 'wide gate' in the bounds of Compton Beauchamp in BCS 908 (an approximately contemporary survey). This last was E. of Wayland Smith's Cave, between the Ridgeway and the Icknield Way. Rammesburi may have been on the E. boundary of Ashbury to the S. of the Ridgeway. Weathercock Hill would be the most likely point for a camp, and Grundy notes the remains of an earthwork half-way up this hill, which he identifies wrongly with a camp mentioned in the bounds of Uffington. Actually, the remains on Weathercock Hill are two large lynchets, which look from below like somewhat eroded ramparts, and which the Anglo-Saxons (like Grundy) probably took for fortifications. Rammesburi means 'raven's fort', v. hræfn , burh .Ramsbury W, the early name of Ram's Hill in Uffington (379), and Ramsbury Corner in Bucklebury (Pt 1155) have the same etymology, and the fourfold occurrence in this area makes it most unlikely that the first el. is a pers.n. Hræfn . One may suspect that this is not a 'mocking' name, such as Rat's Castle, Owl's Castle (a type which is discussed in IPN 149–50), but that the raven is here the familiar of Woden, the Teutonic god of war and death. The sinister associa- tions of this bird as a haunter of battle-fields are well illustrated in OE literature.