The Hundred of North Petherton is one of the 40 historical
Hundreds in the
ceremonial county
The counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies, also referred to as the lieutenancy areas of England and informally known as ceremonial counties, are areas of England to which lords-lieutenant are appointed. Legally, the areas i ...
of
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
, England, dating from before the
Norman conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...
. Although the Hundreds have never been formally abolished, their functions ended with the establishment of
county court
A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...
s in 1867 and the introduction of
districts
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
by the
Local Government Act 1894
The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...
. The name of the hundred derives from the name of the large royal estate (later expanded by
Henry II to become the
Royal Forest
A royal forest, occasionally known as a kingswood (), is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The term ''forest'' in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the ...
of North Petherton
) that covered much of the area in 1086, recorded variously as ''Nortpetret'' 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 ...
, ''Nortpedret'' in
Liber Exoniensis
The ''Liber Exoniensis'' or ''Exon Domesday'' is the oldest of the three manuscripts originating with the Domesday Survey of 1086, covering south-west England. It contains a variety of administrative materials concerning the counties of Cornwa ...
and ''Nort Peretu'' in the associated tax returns.
[Somerset Introduction v1a]
Caroline Thorn & Frank Thorn, Published February, April 2007, accessed 2011-10-17 (cache o
original document
This, in turn, was derived from the area's location to the northern end of the
River Parrett
The River Parrett flows through the counties of Dorset and Somerset in South West England, from its source in the Thorney Mills springs in the hills around Chedington in Dorset. Flowing northwest through Somerset and the Somerset Levels to it ...
.
The hundred was administered from
North Petherton
North Petherton is a small town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the edge of the eastern foothills of the Quantocks, and close to the edge of the Somerset Levels.
The town has a population of 6,730 as of 2014. The parish includ ...
, which had been the hundred meeting place and at the centre of the royal estate during
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.
11th century
A large royal estate existed at North Petherton in 1084 and constituted a hundred; assessed at 38
hides, 3
virgate
The virgate, yardland, or yard of land ( la, virgāta was an English unit of land. Primarily a measure of tax assessment rather than area, the virgate was usually (but not always) reckoned as hide and notionally (but seldom exactly) equal ...
s, and ½ ferling.
At the time of the Norman invasion the hundred covered a large area corresponding, today, roughly to a north–south corridor along the M5 motorway from Junction 25 near
Taunton
Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...
, to north of Junction 23 at
Stretcholt, and east–west from
Athelney
Athelney is a village located between the villages of Burrowbridge and East Lyng in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset, England. The name is believed to be derived from the Old English '' æþeling'' meaning "prince" + -''ey'' meaning "isle". Th ...
to
Goathurst
Goathurst is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Somerset, around 3 miles from the town of Bridgwater. The parish includes the hamlets of Andersfield and Huntstile. The village is on the route of the Samaritans Way South Wes ...
. According to the Domesday Book it included the 37 places in the table below. Although the settlement of North Petherton had what was then considered to be a very large population, it paid little tax as much of it, including the Manor of North Petherton, was held by the king.
The Manor and hundred were
granted at fee farm by
Henry I Henry I may refer to:
876–1366
* Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936)
* Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955)
* Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018)
* Henry I of France (1008–1060)
* Henry I the Long, Margrave of the ...
to John of Erleigh (d. circa 1162). The North Petherton hundred, the former royal estate, was held by the family of John of Erleigh as was the manor of North Petherton until 1371 when his descendant another John of Erleigh was licensed to alienate the hundred and manor to John and Margery Cole.
13th & 14th century
By 1285 the Hundred of North Petherton is known to have included the villages and hamlets of North Petherton, West Newton, Bawdrip, Horsey, Woolmersdon, Durston, Perry, Wembdon, Clayhill, Huntworth, Sandford, East and West Stretcholt, Shearston, Pawlett, Pignes, Crandon, Chilton, Dunwear and Sydenham – all of which had been included at the time of the Domesday Book – together with Chedzoy, Tuckerton and Thurloxton which had not received separate mentions in Domesday; by 1303
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
,
Wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
and
Kidsbury were also named separately within the hundred.
The status of various places also changed over the intervening years. Although Lyng and Bridgwater had been included in the hundred at the time of Domesday, by 1275 Lyng held the status of a
free manor and Bridgwater
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
was described as a separate hundred; however by 1316 they had both returned to the jurisdiction of the Hundred of North Petherton.
16th century
In addition to changes in status, some places also moved to other hundreds. Having been part of the Hundred of North Petherton at the time of Domesday, after a period of as a free manor Creech St Michael became part of Andersfield Hundred in 1569, while Lyng is also listed in Andersfield Hundred in 1640.
At some point Sydenham also left North Petherton Hundred and became part of Andersfield Hundred, before leaving it again in 1652.
19th century
By 1868 the town of Bridgwater and the parishes of Bawdrip, Chedzoy, Chilton Trinity, Durston, St. Michael Church, Pawlett, North Petherton, Thurloxton, and part of Wembdon were within the Hundred of North Petherton, which (excluding Bridgwater) covered an area of 23,150 acres (94 square kilometres).
[Somerset]
National Gazetteer (1868), published 1968 Part of the Parish of North Petherton, a separate
tithing
A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides (and hence, one tenth of a hundred). Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or s ...
known in 1841 as ''Petherton limit'' which may have dated from the 1670s, lay within the Hundred of Andersfield. The Hundreds of
Cannington and
Taunton Dean lay to the West,
Andersfield to south and west, with
Huntspill and Puriton to the north east and
Whitley Hundred and
North Curry Hundred to the east, separated by the
River Parrett
The River Parrett flows through the counties of Dorset and Somerset in South West England, from its source in the Thorney Mills springs in the hills around Chedington in Dorset. Flowing northwest through Somerset and the Somerset Levels to it ...
.
[The Parliamentary gazetteer of England and Wales, Volume III, published 1851]
/ref>
The 1851 Parliamentary gazetteer of England and Wales stated that the hundred had 1,047 houses and a population of 5,800 in 1831. By 1887 the Gazetteer of the British Isles showed that the population had increased to 7,476.A Vision Britain Through Time
Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887), John Bartholomew, published 1887, accessed 2011-10-13
Parish boundaries
At least in later centuries, and possibly earlier than 1086,
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
boundaries were not necessarily constrained by the boundaries of the hundred, and could extend into more than one hundred. The civil parish of Huntstile, for example, was partly in North Petherton Hundred and partly in Andersfield Hundred.
External links
Map of North Petherton Hundred, circa 1840
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:North Petherton
North Petherton
North Petherton is a small town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the edge of the eastern foothills of the Quantocks, and close to the edge of the Somerset Levels.
The town has a population of 6,730 as of 2014. The parish includ ...