Writing in 1931, Victor Strode Manley, as part of his Regional Survey Of Warminster And District, made the following notes about the Moot at Norton Bavant:
The village [of Norton Bavant] is on the north side of the Wylye stream, the last of eleven villages ending in -ton which begin with Bapton. The name means the North Town, to which there is a Sutton or South Town. What has given rise to these names may be the Moot Hill which lies between them but nearer Norton. It is the only little rise in flat meadows. (History of Warminster, page 115). “Mote Hill, or Moot Hill – In this name may be preserved for us the meeting-place of the new settlers – the “tum-moot, where the inhabitants met as a self-governing community.” (Green). This refers to the Saxons.
Moot Hill. A sketch drawn in the early 1930s by Victor Strode Manley, which was included in his Regional Survey Of Warminster And District.
Manley later added the following footnotes:
Moot – v. “Field Archaeology” (1932) page 24 – Moot simply means ditch – name highly probably referring to the site of a moated homestead, or even prehistoric camp – p.23 “In Scotland, castle mounds are called “Motes”. p.24 (2) Moated Homesteads – are called “Moats” on O.S. maps – large number still unrecorded – little evidence of date – none proved earlier than Norman Conquest – majority probably 12th – 14th cents.
At Norton Bavant, a low hill, hence not likely to have held the rectangular wet-ditched homestead – F.A. suggests more than a moat – meeting place – hence search for habitation site here at which meadows could have been defensive from the north but not south – Pitmead Roman Villa would have been a sort of Moated Homestead.