Langley and Swinehead was 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 ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England. Hundreds originated in the late

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 ...

period as a subdivision of a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

and lasted as administrative divisions until the 19th century. Langley and Swinehead was divided into two divisions - Upper and Lower - the Upper division comprised the four ancient

parish 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 ...

es of

Bitton Bitton is a village and civil parish of South Gloucestershire in England, to the east of the Greater Bristol area on the River Boyd. It is in South Gloucestershire. The parish of Bitton has a population of 9,307, and apart from the village ...

Doynton Doynton is a village in South Gloucestershire, England. The population of this village taken at the 2011 census was 320. Setting Doynton is a village situated on the lower slopes of the Cotswolds, approximately two miles south-east of Pucklec ...

, Frampton-Cotterell and Winterbourne and part of the parish of

Alveston Alveston is a village, civil parish and former royal manor in South Gloucestershire, England, inhabited in 2014 by about 3,000 people. The village lies south of Thornbury and north of Bristol. Alveston is twinned with Courville sur E ...

. The Lower division comprised the three ancient parishes of

Littleton-upon-Severn Littleton-upon-Severn is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Aust, in the South Gloucestershire district, in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England, near the mouth of the River Severn and is located to the west of ...

Olveston Olveston is a small village and larger parish in South Gloucestershire, England. The parish comprises the villages of Olveston and Tockington, and the hamlets of Old Down, Ingst and Awkley. The civil parish population at the 2011 census was 2, ...

and

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. The population of Rockhampton in June 2021 was 79,967, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. making it the fourth-largest city in the state outside of the ...

, the remainder of Alveston and part of the parish of

Almondsbury Almondsbury () is a large village near junction 16 of the M5 motorway, in South Gloucestershire, England, and a civil parish which also includes the villages of Hortham, Gaunt's Earthcott, Over, Easter Compton, Compton Greenfield, Hallen and ...

.The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland
, 1868, via GENUKI 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 ...

Langley and Swineshead were listed as two separate hundreds; Langley also included the parish of Thornbury - later a hundred of its own - and Swineshead included both the city of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

and what later became the

Barton Regis Hundred Barton Regis was an ancient Hundred (county subdivision), hundred of Gloucestershire, England. Hundreds originated in the late Anglo-Saxon England, Saxon period as a subdivision of a county and lasted as administrative divisions until the 19th ce ...

. Langley Hundred, on the west, comprised places within seven parishes: * Alveston * Frampton Cotterell * Littleton-upon-Severn * Olveston * Rockhampton * Thornbury * Almondsbury - Gaunts Earthcott and Tockington Swineshead, on the east, comprised places within Bristol (Bristol and Blacksworth), the later Barton Regis Hundred (Barton, Clifton, Mangotsfield and Ridgeway) and four other parishes: * Bitton - Bitton, Oldland and Hanham * Winterbourne - Winterbourne, Hambrook and Sturden *

Stoke Gifford Stoke Gifford is a village and parish in South Gloucestershire, England, in the northern suburbs of Bristol. It had around 11,000 residents at the 2001 census, increasing to 15,494 at the 2011 census. It is home to Bristol Parkway station an ...

(later in Henbury Hundred) *

Wapley Wapley is a rural village in South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Pa ...

(later in Grumbold's Ash Hundred) Doynton was part of Pucklechurch Hundred at the time of the Domesday book. The name Langley is derived from ''lang lēah'' (long clearing), the place believed to be in Alveston parish where the hundred court met. 'Swineshead' came from ''swīn hēafod'' (pigs hill), a place near

Swineford Swineford is a hamlet in the South Gloucestershire council area, very close to the boundary with Bath and North East Somerset. It is located around 1 km south-east of Bitton, and lies on the River Avon, on which the Swineford Lock is sited. ...

, Bitton parish where that hundred court met. It's unclear when the hundreds of Langley and Swineshead were combined: the hundreds were still listed separately in 1395 and the combined hundred was reported from, at the latest, 1602.

References

{{Hundreds of Gloucestershire Hundreds of Gloucestershire History of Bristol