THE HUNDRED OF POLEBROOK 



CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF 



BARNWELL ST. ANDREW 

 BENEFIELD 

 HEMINGTON 

 LUDDINGTON 



OUNDLE 

 POLEBROOK 

 THURNING 

 WARMINGTON 



This hundred lies between those of Willybrook and Navisford, with 

 Corby to the west. To the east it borders on Huntingdonshire. The bound- 

 aries of the hundred and the parishes assigned to it are not conterminous, 

 Thurning and \\'in\vick being partly in Huntingdonshire (Leightonstone 



hundred), while part of Oundle is 

 in Willybrook hundred and Warm- 

 ington (detached) was formerly in 

 Willybrook hundred and afterwards 

 partly in Willybrook and partly in 

 Polebrook. In 1 888 Thurning was 

 wholly transferred to Northamp- 

 tonshire and Winwick to Hunting- 

 donshire. 



The history goes back to early 

 times, for Polebrook was part of the 

 eight hundreds of Oundle (Eahte 

 hundred) confirmed to Peter- 

 borough in 972 by Edgar,^ and this 

 district again may be derived from 

 the 900 or 800 hides assigned to 'Wigesta' in the Tribal Hidage. The eight 

 hundreds were confirmed to the abbey by Eugcnius III in i 146,- by Henry IP 

 and Richard I^ and later kings.^ It must be noted, however, that in 1 125-8 

 Vivian owed is. of the ^^'? hundreds of Oundle and Geoffrey 10s. ;" and 

 when in 1329 the abbot was challenged to say which were his ' eight hundreds,' 

 it being alleged on the king's side that his predecessor had claimed only five, 

 viz., Polebrook, Navisford, Huxloe and North and South Naveslund, he 

 brought the number up to eight by adding his two hundreds of Nesse (Nassa- 

 burgh and the town of St. Peter) and the town of Finedon (Thingden) in 

 the hundred of South Naveslund, which in spite of its name, involving a 

 'thing,' docs not seem to have been a hundred.' It seems probable that at 

 some early time the abbey lost the hundred of Willybrook, for the Geld Roll 



Index Map to the Hundred of Polebrook 



1 yIngl.-Sax. Chron. 963 ; Birch, Cartul. Sax. iii, 582. 



• Dugdalc, Mon. /Ingl. i, 390. ' Ibid. 391. 



* Cal. Chart, iv, 274, 278. 



68 



^ Rot. Cart. (Rec. Com.), 82 ; Cal. Chart, i, 19. 



' Liher Nigfr (Camd. Soc. 47), 167. 



' Phu. lie Quo 11'nr. (Roc. Com.), 553, 555. 



