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Avebury & the Marlborough Downs

Weedon Hill

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Morning all.

Waden is Weedon is Woden: its the girt ridge alongside the Kennet Avenue. In those days even Stukeley didn't always spell things the same way twice.

Silbury is Seall, is Sil is Zil, is Selkley as in the Hundred of Selkley.

Wymans Hill is a corruption of Windmill Hill.

Abury, is Aubrey, is Avebury. John did say he wasn't naming it after himself

Waleditch is the ditch and bank of the henge.

Tidworth is actually Tedworth but a military cartographer made a spelling mistake.

Lastly 'weedon', is the name of the man who taught the world to play the guitar.

VBB

Yes VBB but how was it pronounced?? You academics spend too much time reading stuff.
My home village, Claverley, is spelt that way now and right back to the Domesday book but all we bumpkins pronounced it in a totally different way, one that doesn't appear anywhere on the internet. It's almost forgotten now - in fact there's only me and them up the graveyard knows. I thought of revealing it to you so that it wasn't lost forever, but then I thought ... what have you ever done for me....

Aarft'noon VBB :-)

Waden is Weedon is Woden: its the girt ridge alongside the Kennet Avenue. In those days even Stukeley didn't always spell things the same way twice.
Waden Hill certainly seems to be a Woden's Hill (there's evidence of other Woden place-names in the area implying a once strong Woden cult there). The Wee of Weedon Hill however may not stem from Woden at all but from the different Old English root weoh - the Anglo-Saxon term for a foreigner (ie the Welsh or native 'Britons'). Weedon Hills are found in Bucks and Northants and the etymology of those place-names indicate that they are describing a 'hill with a heathen (British) temple' not a hill dedicated to Woden.

Waleditch is the ditch and bank of the henge.
The Wael of Waleditch is another use in the Avebury area of the Old English term for native Briton. The, "Medieval Assizes Rolls of 1289 describe the (Avebury) henge as waledich (ditch of the Britons)... and it seems likely that the modern place-name of Avebury refers to an Anglo-Saxon settlement to the west of the monument rather than the henge itself. The English Place-Name Society interpretation of the name meaning (of Avebury is a) 'fortified place by the Avon'..."*

In other words, we have one confirmed example of Anglo-Saxon settlers in Avebury referring to the Avebury ditch as the Ditch of the Britons. Drawing on the meaning of Weedon Hill from examples elsewhere in the country it may be that we have a further example in the Avebury area of the Anglo-Saxons referring to Weedon Hill as the Hill of the Britons (and Waden Hill as Woden's Hill) that being the case there's a difference to take into account; one which may go towards confirming that Weedon Hill is a smaller version of Silbury.

* Re: page 4 of Nigel's link above.

we went over all this ages ago.
littlestone just wants to rename silbaby....