Hundreds of Cheshire
The Hundreds of Cheshire, as with other
The hundreds at the time of the Domesday Survey
Cheshire, in the Domesday Book was recorded as a larger county than it is today.[2] There is a small disagreement in published sources about where the northern boundary of Cheshire lay, and some parts of the border areas with Wales were disputed with the predecessors of Wales. One source states that the northern border was the River Ribble, resulting in large parts of what was to become Lancashire being at that time part of Cheshire.[3] This area is included as "Inter Ripam et Mersam" in the Domesday Book.[3][4] However, more recent sources confirm that the actual boundary at that time was the River Mersey.[5][6][7] The ancient parish of Whitchurch in Hodnet Hundred appears in both Cheshire and Shropshire rolls of the Domesday Survey.[8]
Twelve hundreds
The land south of the River Mersey was made up of twelve
This uncertain nature of the northern border lasted until 1182, when the land north of the Mersey became administered as part of the new county of Lancashire.[23] Later, the hundreds of Atiscross and Exestan became firmly part of Wales, as did part of the Dudestan hundred.
Emergence of the later hundreds
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Cheshire-Later-Hundreds.svg/220px-Cheshire-Later-Hundreds.svg.png)
Over the years the remaining ten hundreds consolidated to just seven with changed names:
Broxton
This hundred was mainly formed from the old Dudestan hundred. The southern part of Dudestan was transferred to Wales where it was known as Maelor Saesneg, and (later still) "Flintshire Detached" (see Ancient county of Flintshire.)[21] Broxton hundred from time to time contained all or part of the following parishes:[25]
- Aldford
- Backford
- Bunbury[26] (until 1866 ā to Eddisbury hundred)[27]
- Chester St. Mary on the Hill
- Chester St. Oswald
- Christleton
- Coddington
- Dodleston
- Eccleston
- Farndon
- Guilden Sutton
- Handley
- Harthill
- Malpas
- Plemstall
- Pulford
- Shocklach
- Tarvin
- Tattenhall
- Tilston
- Waverton
Bucklow
Bucklow was known to have been in existence at least as early as 1260. It was formed from the earlier Domesday hundreds of Bochelau and Tunendune.[24][28]
Eddisbury
Eddisbury included the ancient parishes of:[29][30]
- Barrow
- Bunbury (from Broxton hundred after 1866)[27]
- Chester St. Oswald
- Delamere
- Frodsham
- Great Budworth
- Ince
- Little Budworth
- Middlewich
- Over
- Plemstall
- Tarporley
- Tarvin
- Thornton le Moors
- Weaverham cum Milton
- Whitegate
Macclesfield
Macclesfield was known to have been in existence at least as early as 1242. It was formed to a great extent from the earlier Domesday hundred of Hamestan.[24][28]
Wirral
Wirral was formed from the earlier Domesday hundred of Wilaveston.
References
Notes
- in 1092.
- ^ http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/cheshire.html Domesday Book Online: Cheshire
- ^ a b Sylvester (1980, p. 14)
- ^ Morgan (1978, pp. 269c, 301c, 301d)
- ^ Harris & Thacker (1987, p. 252) write:
Certainly there were links between Cheshire and south Lancashire before 1000 AD, when Wulfric Spot held lands in both territories. Wulfric's estates remained grouped together after his death, when they were left to his brother Aelfhelm, and indeed there still seems to have been some kind of connection in 1086, when south Lancashire was surveyed together with Cheshire by the Domesday commissioners. Nevertheless, the two territories do seem to have been distinguished from one another in some way and it is not certain that the shire-moot and the reeves referred to in the south Lancashire section of Domesday were the Cheshire ones.
- ^ Phillips & Phillips (2002, pp. 26ā31)
- ^ Crosby (1996, p. 31) writes:
The Domesday Survey (1086) included south Lancashire with Cheshire for convenience, but the Mersey, the name of which means 'boundary river', is known to have divided the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia and there is no doubt that this was the real boundary.
- ^ Open Domesday: Whitchurch Parish in Hodnet Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Ati's Cross Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Bucklow Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Chester Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Duddeston Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Exestan Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Hamestan Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Middlewich Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Rushton Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Ruloe Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Tunendune Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Warmundestrou Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Open Domesday: Willaston Hundred. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ a b Harris & Thacker (1987, pp. 340ā341)
- ^ Morgan (1978, pp. 269cā301c, 301d). Names as given in Domesday are in parentheses after the previous individual names. The names and number of these hundreds changed over time.
- ^ "History of Lancashire". Aboutlancs. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
- ^ a b c d Dunn (1987, p. 7)
- ^ WeRelate: Broxton Hundred, Cheshire. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ A Vision of Britain through Time: Bunbury, Cheshire. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ a b WeRelate: Bunbury, Cheshire. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ a b Mortimer 1847, p. 51.
- ^ A Vision of Britain through Time: Eddisbury, Cheshire. Accessed 23 July 2022.
- ^ Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
Bibliography
- Crosby, A (1996), A History of Cheshire, (The Darwen County History Series.), Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, ISBN 0-85033-932-4
- Dunn, F. I. (1987), The Ancient Parishes, Townships, and Chapelries of Cheshire, Chester: ISBN 0-906758-14-9
- Harris, B. E.; Thacker, A. T. (1987), The Victoria History of the County of Chester. (Volume 1: Physique, Prehistory, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and Domesday), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-722761-9
- Higham, N. J. (1993), The origins of Cheshire, Origins of the shire, Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-3160-5
- Morgan, P. (1978), Domesday Book Cheshire: Including Lancashire, Cumbria, and North Wales, Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore & Co. Ltd., ISBN 0-85033-140-4
- Mortimer, William Williams (1847), The History of the Hundred of Wirral, Whittaker & Co.
- Phillips, A. D. M.; Phillips, C. B. (2002), A New Historical Atlas of Cheshire, Chester, UK: Cheshire County Council and Cheshire Community Council Publications Trust, ISBN 0-904532-46-1
- Sylvester, D. (1980), A History of Cheshire, (The Darwen County History Series) (2nd ed.), London and Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, ISBN 0-85033-384-9