Codsheath 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 ...

, a historical land division, in the county of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It occupied the eastern part of the

Lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to c ...

Sutton-at-Hone Sutton-at-Hone is a village in the civil parish of Sutton-at-Hone and Hawley in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England. It is located 3.5 miles south of Dartford & 3.6 miles north east of Swanley. History The place-name 'Sutton-at-Hone' is f ...

,An Historical Atlas of Kent, edited by Terence Lawrence & David Killingray (2004) - Maps front cover and back cover inlay within in the west division of Kent. Codsheath was also recorded as "Codsede" in ancient records."The hundred of Codsheath: Introduction"
in ''The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3'' by Edward Hasted (Canterbury, 1797), pp. 1-2. posted at ''British History Online'' Today the area that was the Codsheath Hundred is part of the

Sevenoaks District Sevenoaks is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in west Kent, England. Its council is based in the town of Sevenoaks. The district was Local Government Act 1972, formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Sevenoaks Urban District ...

of Kent that includes the town of

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parishes in England, civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter South Eastern Main Line, main line railway into Lon ...

and surrounding area.Nicholson Greater London Street Atlas Comprehensive Edition (2003) shows present district boundaries The Hundred of Codsheath was included 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, that records it as having 203 houses, 44 in Sundridge and 159 in

Otford Otford is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It lies on the River Darent, north of Sevenoaks. Otford's four churches are the Anglican Church of St Bartholomew in the village centre, the Otford Methodist Churc ...

.Hundred of Codsheath
in ''The Domesday Book'' (1086). posted at ''Opendomesday.org'' The

River Darent The Darent is a Kentish tributary of the River Thames and takes the waters of the River Cray as a tributary in the tidal portion of the Darent near Crayford, as illustrated by the adjacent photograph, snapped at high tide. 'Darenth' is frequen ...

flowed through the Codsheath Hundred, generally in a northeast direction. Several

watermills A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

were constructed on the river within the hundred, in the villages of Sundridge, Otford, Shoreham and

Chevening Chevening House () is a large country house in the parish of Chevening in Kent, in Southeast England. Built between 1617 and 1630 to a design reputedly by Inigo Jones and greatly extended after 1717, it is a Grade I listed building. The surround ...

. In the 1831 census, Codsheath was recorded as having an area of and a population of 12,709, of which 6,394 were female, 6,315 were male,Kent Hundreds population information
''1831 census'' posted at www.visionofbritain.org.uk and 3,239 were males aged 20 and over.Kent Hundreds population information
''1831 census'' posted at www.visionofbritain.org.uk The same census recorded the population as belonging to 2,437 families living in 2,211 houses,Kent Hundreds population information
''1831 census'' posted at www.visionofbritain.org.uk and that 1,295 of these families worked in agriculture, and 649 families worked in trade, manufacturing, or handicraft. Codsheath, like the other hundreds in Kent, became less significant gradually over time, and although never formally abolished, it was obsolete by 1894 with the creation of new districts. In 1894 the area of the Codsheath Hundred became the

Sevenoaks Urban District Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the tradition ...

and part of

Sevenoaks Rural District Sevenoaks Rural District was a rural district in the county of Kent, England, from 1894 to 1974. It did not include Sevenoaks Urban District, which covered the town of Sevenoaks. It was created in 1894 from the majority of the area of Somerden Hu ...

, which in turn merged with each other in 1974 to become the

which remains up to present day.

Parishes

Parishes A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

that were recorded as being in the Hundred of Codsheath were Shoreham,

Halstead Halstead is a town and civil parish in the Braintree District of Essex, England. Its population of 11,906 in 2011 Otford Otford is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It lies on the River Darent, north of Sevenoaks. Otford's four churches are the Anglican Church of St Bartholomew in the village centre, the Otford Methodist Churc ...

Kemsing Kemsing is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. The parish lies on the scarp face of the North Downs, 20 miles south east of Central London, north east of Sevenoaks. Also in the parish are the hamlets of Heave ...

, Seale,

, and Sundridge, and also parts of

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

Speldhurst Speldhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The parish is to the west of Tunbridge Wells: the village is west of the town. Speldhurst has a primary school, a parish church, a general store with p ...

, and Woodland in Kingsdown/West Kingsdown, which also had parts in other hundreds; and also two other parishes that there sometimes, partly recorded as belonging to the Codsheath hundred,

Brasted Brasted is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. Brasted lies on the A25 road, between Sundridge and Westerham; the road is named Westerham Road, High Street and Main Road as it passes through the village east to ...

to the west, which later became a hundred of its own and

Bexley Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Char ...

, in an exclave to the north which had also been recorded as belonging to the Hundred of Ruxley.Hundred of Helmstrei (Ruxley) parishes in the Domesdaybook (1086)
posted at pendomesday.orgBexley parish information
F. Youngs, ''Local Administrative Units: Southern England'' (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 260, posted at www.visionofbritain.org.uk In 1797 the parish churches of Shoreham, Halstead, Otford, Kemsing, Seal, Sevenoaks, Chevening, Sundridge and Woodland in Kingsdown were recorded as belonging to the Codsheath Hundred and the churches of Leigh and Speldhurst to the Somerden Hundred to the south.Edward Hasted, "The hundred of Somerden: Introduction"
in ''The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3'' (Canterbury, 1797), pp. 189-190. posted at ''British History Online''

Boundaries and neighbours

The Hundred of Codsheath was approximately 10 miles long north to south, and 8 miles wide east to west,A Map of the Hundred of Codsheath by Edward Hasted published, canterbury, 1778
posted at www.davidmilesbooks.com occupying the central and eastern area of the

Lathe of Sutton at Hone The Lathe of Sutton-at-Hone historically included a large part of Kent: the present-day boroughs of Dartford, Bexley, Greenwich, Bromley, Lewisham, Sevenoaks District and small parts of the Borough of Tonbridge and Malling and Borough of Tunbr ...

. Codsheath Hundred bordered six other hundreds, four in the Sutton-at-Hone Lathe, and two of the Aylesford Lathe to the east. Hundreds that bordered Codsheath were Somerden to the south, the small hundred of

to the west, the

Hundred of Ruxley Ruxley (previously Rokesley, and in the Domesday Book Helmestrei) was an ancient hundred, a land division in the north west of the county of Kent, England. Its area has been mostly absorbed by the growth of London; with its name currently referr ...

to the northwest,

Axstane Hundred Axstane was a hundred in the county of Kent, England. The Hundred of Axstane lay south-east of Dartford and Wilmington Hundred. It is called Achestan in Domesday Book, but by the reign of Edward I it was called Axstane. Its name has been interpr ...

to the northeast, all within the Sutton-at-Hone; and the Aylesford hundreds of Wrothham to the east, and Lowy of Tunbridge to the southeast. Before Brasted became its own hundred, it was a parish of Codsheath, at this time the western boundary of Codsheath Hundred would have been with the Westerham and Edinbridge Hundred, also in the Sutton-at-Hone Lathe.

References

{{Reflist Hundreds of Kent