A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



but to Ballingdon, close to Belchamp Walter, of which Morant could 

 find no mention in Domesday. ' Belindune ' was held in Domesday by 

 Peter de Valognes, and it is subsequently found held of his manor of 

 Fakenham in Suffolk, which confirms the identification. Its chapel also 

 is known to have been given to St. Alban's Abbey, to which Peter was 

 a benefactor. The only remaining manor in this Half Hundred 1 was 

 that of ' Bineslea,' which, although its name is now lost, can be shown 

 to have been in the close vicinity of Belchamp Walter and Ballingdon.* 

 The extremely small size of this Half Hundred, together with its name 

 of archaic sound, suggest a possible survival from an earlier period than 

 that at which the great Hundreds by which it is surrounded assumed 

 their present form. 



The rest of the Domesday Hundreds have retained their identity 

 and their names with very little alteration. ' Witbrictesherna ' is now 

 ' Dengie,' and the ' Liberty of Havering-atte-Bower ' appears to have 

 been taken out of Becontree, the 'Beventreu' of Domesday. Broadly 

 speaking, the Essex Hundreds do not, either by their names or their 

 areas, suggest archaic divisions. Nine of them, at least, take their names 

 from parishes within their borders, and usually near their centres ; these 

 are Rochford, Chelmsford, Witham, Tendring, Dunmow, Clavering, 

 Harlow, Ongar and Waltham. Lexden, it is important to observe, 

 contains two parishes which are cut off from the rest of the Hundred by 

 the Domesday c Hundred ' of Colchester, a district containing between 

 eleven and twelve thousand acres. This arrangement obviously suggests 

 that the district of Colchester had, at some time, been taken out of 

 Lexden Hundred, a suggestion strongly supported by the fact that 

 Lexden parish itself is within the borough boundary. Becontree and 

 Winstree are ancient names, and I cannot but think that ' Bentry Heath ' 

 (now ' Becontree Heath ') in Dagenham was at one time the meeting- 

 place of its Hundred, as must have been Hundred Heath (no longer on 

 the map) in Tendring. When the Liberty of Havering was part of the 

 Hundred, it would have been fairly central. Apart from Chelmsford 

 and Rochford, three of the Essex Hundreds, Uttlesford, Hinckford and 

 Chafford, took their name from fords, like several parishes in the 

 county. 3 



On the name of one of these three Hundreds, which has always 

 been deemed an insoluble puzzle, Domesday throws, I think, no un- 

 certain light. The great Hundred of Hinckford is entered in the 

 Survey as that of Hidincfort (2), Hidincforda (2), Hidinghfort (i), 

 Hidinghefort (i), Hidinghafort (2), Hidingeforda (i), Hidingaforda (6), 

 Hidingforda (9), Hidingfort (10), and Hedingfort (i) ; 'but where 



1 ' Walla ' was no more in it than were Theydon and Loughton, which divide it from ' Bineslea ' 

 in the text (see pp. 537-8 below). 



* It occurs in the great Hospitallers' cartulary (Nero E. VI. fo. 332^) as a place apparently in 

 the neighbourhood of Middleton and of Goldingham (in Bulmer), and Richard son of Peter de Binesle 

 is found in Ancient Deeds, A. 539, in connection with Bulmer. 



' ' Uttlesford Bridge ' in Wenden (in about the centre of the Hundred) preserves the memory of 

 the first of these fords. The course of the great London road is marked by Stratford, Ilford, Romford, 

 Widfbrd, Chelmsford, Easterford (Kelvedon), Copford and Empford (Stanway Bridge). 



406 



