Category:Hundred

From Ars Magica

An administrative area of nominally 100 hides of land. There were fifteen Hundreds in Shropshire, at the time of Domesday although the nominal land area is significantly greater.

The word comes from the Latin term Hundredum, and meant a district within a Shire, whose assembly of notables and village representatives normally met abount once a month.

Contents 1 Domesday Hundreds 2 Medieval Hundreds 2.1 Timing of the changes 2.2 Details of the changes

Domesday Hundreds

The Hundreds of Domesday book were basically the Saxon Hundreds, largely named after hilltop,s prominent trees or woods, and isoltated stones, tumulii and mounds.

Medieval Hundreds

Shropshire's Hundreds were reorganised in medieval times. This reorganisation was driven by three factors:-

1. the removal of western and south-western parts of the county into the Marcher lordships
2. the absorbtion into the south-eastern parts of the county of manors from Shropshire and some stated to be from Warwickshire (Probably an outlier from the rest of Warwickshire
3. the creation of "liberties" of Wenlock, Shrewsbury, and Cleobury Mortimer,

together with other minor re-orgisational boundary changes.

Timing of the changes

It is not clear exactly when these changes were completed, or even whether they were all carried out at one time. They may well have been completed by the accession of Henry II (1154) and most of the new names have been identified as used by 1203. Therefore, for game purposes medieval hundreds should be used.

Details of the changes

Details of the changes are listed under the entries for the individual hundreds.