Cunetio was deserted as a Romano-British site in about AD 450, but the site was reoccupied in the Anglo-Saxon era and a West Saxon charter drawn up between 803 and 805 refers to this settlement in its first recognisably modern form as "Mildanhald", meaning "a nook of land of a woman called Milde or a man called Milda". The village is again mentioned in Domesday Book in 1086 as "Mildenhalle" and the name has since undergone numerous subtle changes in spelling and pronunciation.