The Hundred of Elmbridge or Elmbridge/Emley Hundred was a geographic subdivision (called a "

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

") in the north of the county of Surrey, England. The majority of its area forms the modern

Borough of Elmbridge Elmbridge is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its principal towns and villages are Esher, Cobham, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge and Molesey. It directly borders the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and ...

, with the remainder forming part of the

Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames is a borough in southwest London. The main town is Kingston upon Thames and it includes Surbiton, Chessington, Malden Rushett, New Malden and Tolworth. It is the oldest of the four royal boroughs in En ...

Greater London Greater may refer to: * Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality * ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film * Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record * "Greater" (song), by MercyMe, 2014 * Greater Bank, an Austra ...

History

Elmbridge appears in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 as ''Amelebrige'' an area used for strategic, secular purposes with a Hundred Court where local wealthy and powerful figures met about once a month. It also had in early centuries a small number of owners who attempted to charge and collect rent of all of the owners of the main manageable medieval asset in the country, the

manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

Etymology

The name refers to a bridge over the

River Mole The River Mole is a tributary of the River Thames in southern England. It rises in West Sussex near Gatwick Airport and flows northwest through Surrey for to the Thames at Hampton Court Palace. The river gives its name to the Surrey distr ...

, which was originally called the River Emel or Amele, a word possibly meaning 'misty' and later had the alternate form Emlyn; the bridge may have been between

Hersham Hersham is a village in Surrey, within the M25. Its housing is relatively low-rise and diverse and it has four technology/trading estates. The only contiguous settlement is Walton-on-Thames, its post town. Hersham is served by Hersham and ...

and

Esher Esher ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole, Surrey, River Mole. Esher is an outlying suburb of London near the London-Surrey Border, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greate ...

and specifically close to the crossing of today's

A244 road List of A roads in zone 2 in Great Britain starting south of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the ...

. Elmbridge's name thus did not derive from elm trees which appeared on the Surbiton Urban District Council municipal arms and continue in the Elmbridge municipal arms.

Scope

Parishes within the

were: *

Cobham Cobham may refer to: Geography Towns or districts * Cobham, Kent, England * Cobham, Surrey, England * Cobham, South Australia, a former town in Australia * Cobham, Albemarle County, Virginia, United States * Cobham, Surry County, Virginia, U ...

*East and West

Molesey Molesey is a district of two twin towns, East Molesey and West Molesey, in the Borough of Elmbridge, Surrey, England, and is situated on the south bank of the River Thames. East and West Molesey share a high street, and there is a second retai ...

(the divide occurred during the heyday of the hundred's economic significance). * Stoke D'Abernon *

Thames Ditton Thames Ditton is a suburban village on the River Thames, in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Apart from a large inhabited island in the river, it lies on the southern bank, centred 12.2 miles (19.6 km) southwest of Charing Cro ...

(part containing the manors of Imber Court and Weston which with

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has ...

formed/forms Weston Green) *

Walton-on-Thames Walton-on-Thames, locally known as Walton, is a market town on the south bank of the Thames in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Walton forms part of the Greater London built-up area, within the KT postcode and is served by a wide ...

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...

At times it also included: *

Tolworth Tolworth is a suburban area in the Surbiton district, Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Greater London. It is southwest of Charing Cross. Neighbouring places include Long Ditton, New Malden, Kingston, Surbiton, Berrylands, Hinchley Wo ...

and

Chessington Chessington is an area in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames within Greater London. Historically part of Surrey, today it is the largest salient of Greater London into that county. At the 2011 census it had a population of 18,973. Th ...

Surbiton Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it h ...

had an elm tree on its crest as its area once lay within the Elmbridge hundred.Civic heraldry
/ref>

Use and decline

Its economic unity was shattered like most hundreds given the rise of smaller

s and newer manors which came to form the main, manageable agricultural asset throughout the country. It occupied just less than the central to north-west twelfth of the county. The

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of En ...

collated the medieval documents such as feet of fines and using these supports a date of about 1200, which would tie it in the grant of a liberty by

King John King John may refer to: Rulers * John, King of England (1166–1216) * John I of Jerusalem (c. 1170–1237) * John Balliol, King of Scotland (c. 1249–1314) * John I of France (15–20 November 1316) * John II of France (1319–1364) * John I o ...

, as when it passed to the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle ...

of Kingston to be held "at fee farm" being kept farmed and free from ( land that was never cultivatable, termed waste). In 1280 it was said to be in the hands of their tenant Reginald de Imworth, with whose manor of Imworth it descended until 1499, when Richard Ardern died seised of the manor of Imworth and half the hundred, held of (i.e. under and subject to a rent to) the men of Kingston. Within the hundred there were several exempt jurisdictions. In 1253 John D'Abernon was successful in his claim to view of frankpledge in Stoke D'Abernon, and Avelina, daughter of Geoffrey de Cruce and wife of Roger de Legh, also claimed the right in Walton. In a Subsidy Roll of about 1334 the area was valued at £24 0s. 6d, although it is not clear if this was a collective tax demand figure of the manors of the hundred.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elmbridge Hundreds of Surrey Borough of Elmbridge