Hog's Back - Archaeology and Seven Ditches

Archaeology and Seven Ditches

Roughly midway along the ridge of the Hog’s Back between Farnham and Guildford (OS grid reference SU911483), the human remains of at least six skeletons were discovered in 1935 when ground was being dug for a new water pipe. They were buried less than a yard from the then-northern edge of the road (now part of the central grass verge between the two carriageways). One of them was buried prone and another showed signs of having originally been bound or trussed, and scholars now believe that they were criminals buried here after execution at different times over an extended period (Reynolds in 2005; Briggs in 2010). Their burial place was at the meeting point of the parishes of Wanborough, Seale (originally Farnham) and Puttenham, which were each in the different hundreds of Woking, Farnham and Godalming respectively. It is suggested by Rob Briggs that an elevated site at the junction of different hundreds and parishes was probably a site of general assembly and he identifies it with the place name Seven Ditches, found in the charter of King Caedwalla of Wessex confirming Farnham to the Bishop of Winchester (following the original grant by King Edward the Elder in 909 AD) (Latin “vii dican”); and also in a feoffment defining the Shoelands estate in about 1210 (Latin “Seuedic”); and also in the plea rolls of the 1263 Surrey Eyre, noting the hanging of one Robert de la Felde of Send at (Latin) “Seinedik”, translated Sendike or Seven Ditches.