popular Victorian theories, the Battle of Ashdown in 871 was not fought at Uffington and the White Horse was not created as a monument by King Alfred's men. Place Names The earliest known records of place names (toponym) are as Uffentun and Offentona in Anglo-Saxon charters from 931 now reproduced in the Cartularium Saxonicum. Another 10th- and 11th-century spelling was Offentune. The Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Offentone. Later spellings include Offinton in the 13th century, Uffinton in the 14th century and Offington in the 16th century. The name is derived from Old English and means "the tūn of Uffa's people". The word tūn originally meant "fence", but had come to mean an enclosure or homestead. Charter and Manors Uffington is recorded in 10th century boundary charters and in 931 Earl Æthelstan granted an estate at Uffington by seisin to Abingdon Abbey. The abbey held the manor throughout the Middle Ages. In 1291 King Edward I visited a nearby grange. In 1630 Elizabeth Craven, widow of Sir William Craven, bought the manors of Uffington and Compton from Sir Francis Jones. This began a 329-year connection between the Craven family and Uffington. St Mary's parish church suffered in the Civil War because of the Craven family's Royalism. The Earls of Craven lived at nearby Ashdown House. Parish church The Church of England parish church of St Mary is cruciform in plan and was completed about 1250. The tower is mounted in the centre of the building rather than at one end, over the crossing between the nave, chancel and transepts, and (unusually) is octagonal (8-sided) in cross-section rather than square. Some of the present windows date from the 17th century. In the south transept is a Jacobean monument to John Saunders, who died in 1638. It has a semi-reclining effigy of Saunders set in a semi-circular coffered arch, with a large plaque surrounded by strapwork. St Mary's church is a Grade I listed building. Its parish is part of the Benefice of Uffington, Shellingford, Woolstone and Baulking. The tower had a ring of five bells until 1992, when they were increased to six by the addition of a new treble bell. The five original bells were cast in 1657. In 1762 Thomas Rudhall of Gloucester recast the tenor bell and in 1770 Robert I Wells of Aldbourne, Wiltshire recast what is now the fifth bell. In 1803 James Wells,