Charlton

As stated elsewhere, Charlton appears to have been the principal, if not the only, settlement of bonded, or unfree, peasant tenants on the manor. In the light of this, apparent meaning of the place name Charlton, and its variant forms Carleton and Carlatton, denoting ‘the settlement of the ceorls’ or peasants’ is intriguing. Winchester (1987, 19) has suggested the name was given especially to settlements of the bondmen who tilled the royal demesne.

The relationship of Charlton with its bondage tenancies to Tarset would appear to match this very closely. Moreover, given the fact that there was more than one settlement with the name Charlton in this area, with the hamlets of Little Charlton and South Charlton also figuring in the sources, it is possible that the area between Bellingham and Tarset was the zone of dependent ceorl settlements whose labour originally served all the neighbouring manorial estates.