THE HUNDRED OF ODSEY 



ARDELEY 

 ASHWELL 

 BROADFIELD 

 BYGRAVE 



CALDECOTE 

 CLOTHALL 

 COTTERED 

 HINXWORTH 



KELSHALL 

 RADWELL 

 REED 

 ROYSTON 



RUSHDEN 

 SANDON 

 THERFIELD 

 WALLING TON 



The area of jurisdiction of this hundred extended over a large portion 

 of the 'champaign country,' which forms the distinctive feature of the 

 , Hertfordshire chalk hills. The two 

 great roads from London to the north 

 roughly form its boundaries east and 

 west, and its northern limit is the 

 border between Hertfordshire and the 

 counties of Bedford and Cambridge, 

 following in part the line of the 

 Icknield Way. 



The parishes of Hinx worth, 

 Ash well, Caldecote, Bygrave and Rad- 

 well form with Newnham a tongue of 

 land projecting northwards between 

 the counties of Bedford and Cambridge. 

 In 1086 Newnham was within the 

 hundred of Odsey * ; but the Abbots 

 of St. Albans, who were lords of the 

 manor, had transferred the suit of 

 their tenants to Cashio Hundred 

 before 1286. 3 Since this time Newn- 

 Ixoex m,p 10 die Hundred of Odsey ham has formed a detached portion of 



Cashio Hundred within the hundred 

 of Odsey.* With this exception there has been little change in the 

 geographical extent of the hundred since the time of the Domesday Survey. 6 

 It is probable that the Survey records under Odsey Hundred the assessment 

 of Offley, now in Hitchin Hundred, merely through the omission of a 

 sub-heading. 6 The holding of Count Alan in Anstey was placed under the 

 heading 'Odsey Hundred' in 1086, 7 but the lands of Harduin de Scales 

 there are mentioned under Edwinstree Hundred, 8 in which Anstey was 

 included in the 13th and following centuries. 9 The Survey also includes 

 under Odsey Hundred the unidentified lands of Ralf de Limesy at 



i {Pop. Ret. 1831). 

 : R. 32;, ra. 3 + d. ' V.C.H. Herts, ii, 320. 



7 Ibid. 321a. • Ibid. 34o£. 



1 This 



1 V.C.H. Herts, i, 315*. 

 1 Ibid, i, 301 et seq. 

 8 Hmd. R. (Rec. Com.), 



the extent of the hundred i: 



6 Ibid. 328 ; cf. foor-n 

 193 ; Feud. Aids, ii, 431, 

 192 



