Guthlaxton is an ancient
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 ...
of
Leicestershire
Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...
. Its jurisdiction was in the south of the county, and covered
Lutterworth
Lutterworth is a market town and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, close to the borders with Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. It is located north of Rugby ...
and
Wigston Magna
Wigston, or Wigston Magna, is a town in Leicestershire, England, just south of Leicester on the A5199. It had a population of 32,321 in 2011.
Geography
Wigston is south of the city of Leicester, at the centre of Leicestershire and the Ea ...
. At the time of 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 ...
, it was one of Leicestershire's four
wapentake
A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...
s, and covered a much larger area, including
Market Bosworth
Market Bosworth is a market town and civil parish in western Leicestershire, England. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 1,906, increasing to 2,097 at the 2011 census. It is most famously near to the site of the decisive final battle o ...
and
Hinckley
Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbor ...
, which would later be made part of the
Sparkenhoe Sparkenhoe was a hundred of Leicestershire, England in the south-west of the county, covering Market Bosworth and Hinckley, broadly corresponding to the modern districts of Blaby and Hinckley and Bosworth.
The meeting place of the Sparkenhoe Hund ...
hundred.
The original meeting place of the hundred was at the Guthlaxton stone. The
Sparkenhoe Sparkenhoe was a hundred of Leicestershire, England in the south-west of the county, covering Market Bosworth and Hinckley, broadly corresponding to the modern districts of Blaby and Hinckley and Bosworth.
The meeting place of the Sparkenhoe Hund ...
hundred was split from Guthlaxton in 1346.
[John Curtis, ''A Topographical History of the County of Leicester'' (1831)]
Guthlaxton College in Wigston Magna was named after the hundred. The school was renamed
Wigston College
Wigston College, previously known as Guthlaxton College, is a coeducational sixth form located in Wigston Magna in the English county of Leicestershire. The college forms part of The Wigston Academies Trust, together with neighbouring Wigston ...
in 2015. In the late 19th century the administrative aspects of most hundreds were given to other specialized governmental divisions.
References
Ancient subdivisions of Leicestershire
{{Leicestershire-geo-stub