Charford
Charford, Breamorecounty:
Hampshire
otherwise: Cerdeford, 1086; Sherdiford, 1200; Chardeford, 1236; Cherdeford, 1240
CHARFORD, two parishes, later one, now manor and farm in Breamore
Nothing can be made of this name unless it is linked with the 'Cerdices/Certices ford' of annal 519 of the Old English Chronicle recurring in a about 1000 recension with the qualification 'in fluvio Avene'='on the river Avon'. It is 'Cerdic's ford', the site of the battle at which Cerdic and Cynric routed the Welsh in the Wessex heartland once and for all. If we can take the Chronicle at face value, then this might be the battle at which the present boundary of Hampshire was established here. There is no earlier mention of Cerdic or his dynasty any further west or north. They do not fight in the present Wiltshire till the mid c6.
The Chronicle also says that battles against the Welsh took place in 495 at 'Cerdicesora' and in 527 at 'Cerdicesleag' his 'bank' and 'wood/clearing', both unidentified places. Cerdic appears to have left place names commemorating himself rather like Alexander.
Listed in Domesday Book
- Fordingebrige Hundred - Hantescire
Period - 11th century
TERRA TAINORV~ REGIS ... ALWI fili Torber ten. de rege CERDIFORD . Vluiet tenuit de rege E in alodiu~ ...
