Godley was 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 de ...

in what is now

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England.

Egham Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...

, Thorpe,

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in the ...

and

Chobham Chobham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England. The village has a small high street area, specialising in traditional trades and motor trades. The River Bourne and its northern tributary, the Hale, ...

are all mentioned in the

Chertsey Abbey Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to St Peter, was a Benedictine monastery located at Chertsey in the English county of Surrey. It was founded in 666 AD by Saint Erkenwald who was the first abbot, and from 675 AD the Bishop of London. At the same time ...

charter of 673 AD due to a donation by Frithuwold.

manor needed to be large to have a reasonable economic importance as it covered very poor quality

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

. Most of the population of the

would have settled on the more fertile

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

soil bordering 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 longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. Godley appears in

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 ''Godelie''. Godley was a hundred (these are not marked on the Surrey map, which shows only Domesday manors) an administrative area, where local leaders met about once a month. It included the manors of

, Thorpe,

Pyrford Pyrford is a village in the borough of Woking in Surrey, England. It is on the left bank of the River Wey, around east of the town of Woking and just south of West Byfleet; the M25 motorway is northeast of the edge of the former parish. The ...

and

Byfleet Byfleet is a village in Surrey, England. It is located in the far east of the borough of Woking, around east of West Byfleet, from which it is separated by the M25 motorway and the Wey Navigation. The village is of medieval origin. Its winding ...

is within the Godley hundred but unusually lies within the

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

parish. The hundred was probably bounded to the west by the River Blackwater and to the north by the River Thames. To the north was the Land of ''

Sunningas The ''Sunningas'' were a tribe or clan of early Anglo-Saxon England, whose territory formed a '' regio'' or administrative subdivision of the early Kingdom of Wessex. The ''Sunningas'' inhabited Sonning and its environs, in the modern county of B ...

''; to the south

Woking (hundred) :''See Woking for the town or Borough of Woking for the district.'' Woking was a hundred in what is now Surrey, England. It includes the town of Woking and the Borough of Woking. The Hundred comprised the parishes of: Ash, East Clandon, West Cla ...

and then the Land of Godhelmingas, to the west the Land of ''

Basingas The Basingas were an Anglo-Saxon tribe, whose territory in the Loddon Valley formed a '' regio'' or administrative subdivision of the early Kingdom of Wessex. Their leader, Basa, gave the tribe its name which survives in the names of Old Basing a ...

''. In the Godley hundred, in

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

times, the

heriot Heriot, from Old English ''heregeat'' ("war-gear"), was originally a death-duty in late Anglo-Saxon England, which required that at death, a nobleman provided to his king a given set of military equipment, often including horses, swords, shields ...

, death duties, usually consisted of the tenants' best beast.

References

External links

A life of Ley Hunting
{{Coord, 51, 24, 27, N, 0, 31, 46, W, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark Hundreds of Surrey

See also

References

External links