Ralph Whitlock, in his book Salisbury Plain, published in 1955, writes:
If we were to continue along the Wincanton road from Hindon we would climb to a height of just over 700 feet (at which unusual altitude, incidentally, I once saw a grass-snake, by this very road) on Charnage, or Chaddenwyche, Down and then spin down the long incline to Mere.