We recently had an enquiry regarding the origins of the road Sally In The Wood, which can in fact be found just over the border in the parish of Bathford, Somerset. It forms a section of the A363 as it journeys through Home Wood towards Bathford.

The explanations of the road name are both varied and intriguing, and as they are also closely related to the parish of Monkton Farleigh in Wiltshire, I thought I’d share them with you.

 
OS 1st edition, 1887, Ref: 32/5
Warleigh Manor can be seen in the top left corner, with the road Sally in the Wood running through Home Wood immediately to the right of the Manor.

John Chandler in his book ‘The Reflection in the Pond’, gives us three versions of the tale. The first is of a supernatural nature, and was published by Kathleen Wiltshire in 1984. It tells the story of a young couple who knocked down a girl dressed in white when she ran from trees across the road in front of their car. Another version, this time by Maggie Dobson and Simone Brightstein relate that Sally was murdered in the woods or imprisoned in nearby Brown’s Folly, or that she was an actual road accident victim. Interestingly, the name of the small section of woodland immediately below Home Wood is called 'Dead Man Wood'. Katy Jordan in her book ‘The Haunted Landscape’ mentions that Sally in the Woods does have the reputation of being an eerie place, where ‘no birds sing’, so you never know...
To find out more about the other versions of the tale, please 'read more'.

 
View towards Bath from Brown's Folly, Monkton Farleigh, 19th century
Ref: P6303 Wiltshire Historic Photographic Collection

A Civil War element to the origin of the name has also been suggested. It relates to a skirmish that took place before the Battle of Lansdown in July 1643 when the Roundheads were ambushed by the Royalists. ‘Waller had made a temporary bridge across the Avon below Claverton, and crossed his troops by it to the Monkton Farleigh side, where they laid an ambush for their opponents, ‘in the Woodland-wald-grownd in the foote of the hill’’. The following day a fight appears to have begun and continued up to Monkton Farleigh and over to Batheaston. The term ‘sally’ at that time had the meaning of ‘a sudden rush out from a besieged place upon the enemy’.

The third and final version that we know of relates to a Sarah Gibson, baptised at Monkton Farleigh in 1732 and who married a gamekeeper from nearby Warleigh Manor in 1762. Unfortunately, upon his death she was evicted from their cottage. Her family had moved away to Bathford and she is said to have inhabited a little hut in the nearby woods through which the turnpike was driven in 1792.

 
19th century view of Warleigh Manor
Ref: P32940 Wiltshire Historic Photographic Collection

Henry Duncan Skrine of Warleigh Manor, who was a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset in the 19^th century, recalled his childhood memories of Sarah Gibson in which she was accounted a witch. ‘Her smoke-dried hut was like an awful cave to us children, and her thin shrill sepulchral voice still rings in my ears. At her death the carpenter who acted as sub-bailiff burned the cottage down, and declared to us children that he saw something on a broomstick go out of the chimney’! (Howells, 2010).

 
Burial entry for Sarah, stating that she was 100 years old

Many thanks to Crystal Payne who posted us some new information regarding Sarah Gibson in February 2011. She thinks that Sarah was actually baptised in 1724 as Sarah Webb (the same year as her husband John Gibson) and that the Sarah baptised in 1732 was in fact her sister-in-law. Crystal has kindly given her research to the Bathford Historical Society. I leave it to you to draw your own conclusion as to which of the tales you think is the most probable!

As regards the origin of road names, it was very common for roads to be called after the people who lived in and around them. Sir Charles Hobhouse noted in his book ‘Monkton Farleigh’, published 1882 that ‘the majority have had their origin in the combined vanity and industry of man. Men, as David says “think that their houses shall continue forever, and call the lands after their own name”’.  There have been many occurrences where road names have derived from, for example, the person who has a shop at the end of the lane, and other such associations.

I came across another ‘Sally’ road, this time just over the border in Shaftesbury, Dorset. It was called ‘Sally King’s Lane’. I wonder what the story of this Sally is?...

All information quoted is available to view at our Local Studies Library, and John Chandler's book is also available to purchase from our sales area; please see below for references:

‘The Reflection in the Pond’ by John Chandler, 2009
Ref: AAA.807

 ‘Monkon Farleigh’by Sir Charles Hobhouse, 1882
Ref: MON.940

‘The Haunted Landscape: Folklore, ghosts & legends of Wiltshire, by Katy Jordan, 2000
Ref: AAA.398

‘Bathford Past & Present’ by Godfrey Laurence, revised by D. Howells, 2010
Ref; YSB.940

Julie Davis
Local Studies Assistant

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