Gartree 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 ...

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 ...

. It was in the south-east of the county, roughly corresponding to today's

Harborough district Harborough () is a local government district of Leicestershire, England, named after its main town, Market Harborough. Covering , the district is by far the largest of the eight district authorities in Leicestershire and covers almost a quarter o ...

. The town of

Market Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, in the far southeast of the county, forming part of the border with Northamptonshire. Market Harborough's population was 25,143 in 2020. It is the admi ...

was its largest settlement. It gives its name to

HMP Gartree HM Prison Gartree is a Category B men's prison, located in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England. Gartree is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. History Constructed on the western part of the site which was previously RAF Market Harbo ...

, and also to the Gartree

electoral division An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

. The original meeting place of the hundred, which was used for local administration, justice and taxation, was the Gartree Bush, or Gartree (possibly from the Scandinavian word ''geir'' or spear), lying north east of

Kibworth Kibworth is an area of the Harborough District, Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, that contains two civil parishes in England, civil parishes: the villages of Kibworth Beauchamp and Kibworth Harcourt . At the 2011 census, Kibwor ...

and south west of

Gaulby Gaulby (or Galby) is a village in Leicestershire, England, 7 miles east of the city of Leicester. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 131, (including Frisby). The 2011 census for Gaulby returned 52 houses and 141 residents. Histo ...

on the Roman

Via Devana Via Devana is the name given to a Roman Road in England that ran from Colchester in the south-east, through Cambridge in the interior, and on to Chester in the north-west. These were important Roman military centres and it is conjectured that the ...

, now known as the Gartree Road. This was the open-air meeting place from the tenth century to the eighteenth century where jurors, drawn from the local villages, handed out justice and administered taxes each month. It may have been the site of a prehistoric burial mound, and the site of a previous Anglo Saxon moot place. In 1750, this was moved to the Bull's Head at

Tur Langton Tur Langton (derived from the Anglo-Saxon word for an enclosure, meaning "long town") is a small village and civil parish in the Harborough Market Harborough is a market town in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England, in th ...

.J. M. Lee and R. A. McKinley,
A History of the County of Leicestershire: Volume 5
', Victoria County History ''List of Areas in Gartree'': Fleckney, Great Glen, Kibworth, Kibworth Harcourt, Wistow, Stretton Hall, Great Stretton, Little Stretton, Stoughton, Kings Norton , John O' Gaunt, Gaulby, Saddington Gumley Foxton Gartree

References

Ancient subdivisions of Leicestershire {{Leicestershire-geo-stub