THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



the Hiding Ford was from which it took its appellation,' wrote Morant 

 (ii. 249), 'I cannot learn.' Yet we have not to look further than the 

 Hedinghams, lying in the very heart of the Hundred, for the origin of 

 the name. The road by which they were united must have traversed 

 the Colne by a ford, and as roads from the four quarters of the Hundred 

 all met close to that ford, it would form an ideal spot for the Hundred's 

 moot. Local politicians will remember the famous annual meetings 

 of the Hinckford Hundred Conservatives at Castle Hedingham. 



The remaining Hundreds are those of Barstable, Thurstable and 

 Freshwell. Of these the first derives its name from Barstable (Hall) in 

 Basildon, a manor entered in Domesday, which is almost in the centre 

 of the Hundred ; Thurstable was, no doubt, a place of which the name 

 is now lost ; Freshwell derived, according to Morant, its name from a 

 little stream which flows into the Pant between Radwinter and Great 

 Sandford, and which rises in about the centre of the Hundred. In 

 Domesday, Maldon and ' Thunreslau ' are entered as ' Half Hundreds, 

 Clavering, Freshwell, Harlow, Waltham and Witham sometimes as 

 Hundreds and sometimes as * Half Hundreds, but the two first more 

 frequently as the latter, and the three others more frequently as Hun- 

 dreds. This looseness of expression may prepare us for the fact that 

 Winstree is subsequently styled a ' Half Hundred in charters, and that 

 on the Hundred Rolls Clavering, Freshwell, Harlow, Thurstable, 

 Winstree and Waltham occur as ' Half Hundreds, while Uttlesford, 

 as was occasionally the case, is divided into the Hundreds of ' Estho- 

 delesford' and ' Westhodelesford.' On a roll of 1303 Thurstable, Harlow 

 and Clavering are ' Half Hundreds. 1 It will have been seen from the 

 foregoing how loose was the classification. 



Apart from the names, the boundaries of the Hundreds are suggestive 

 of their late formation. The three Thurrocks, in the south of the 

 county, are divided between the Hundreds of ChafFord and Barstable ; 

 the two Bumpsteads, in its north, between Freshwell and Hinckford ; 

 the Rodings are partly in Dunmow Hundred and partly in that of 

 Ongar ; the parishes of Henham and of Stansted Mountfichet are divided 

 between the Hundreds of Clavering and Uttlesford. 1 Other parishes 

 similarly divided by Hundredal boundaries are North Weald Bassett, 

 Epping, Reydon, High Ongar, Great Leighs, Danbury, Little Baddow 

 and Thundersley. In all such cases it may be concluded that the 

 boundary of the parish, or of the group of parishes bearing the same 

 name, is older than that of the Hundred. In Clavering we seem to have 

 a Hundred taken out of Uttlesford for the benefit of Suain of Essex, who 

 appears to have been its lord. 3 



In at least two remarkable instances original settlements are cut 



1 Feudal Aids, pp. 1*9 et seq. Tendring, conversely, is styled 'two Hundreds' in Stephen's 

 charter of disaffbresution. 



* It should, however, be observed that Pledgdon in Henham and Bendfield in Stansted, which are 

 the portions in Clavering Hundred, are distinct hamlets a nd were separately entered, by their names, in 

 Domesday. 



8 See p. 345 ; and p. 487 below for his rights in that of Rochford, the other centre of his power. 



407 



