Æthelwulf of Wessex
The first documentary evidence of the village is by Æthelwulf of Wessex in 854, where it was spelt 'Cerawicombe'. At that time the manor belonged to Glastonbury Abbey. Later Gytha Thorkelsdóttir, wife of Earl Godwin, gave it to the monks of Winchester to make amends for her husband's "treacherous abuses of divers monastic institutions".