200px, Pembrokeshire showing Narberth Hundred
The Hundred of Narberth was a
hundred in
Pembrokeshire,
Wales. An administrative and legal division, it was formed by the
Act of Union of 1536 from parts of the pre-
Norman cantref
A cantref ( ; ; plural cantrefi or cantrefs; also rendered as ''cantred'') was a medieval Welsh land division, particularly important in the administration of Welsh law.
Description
Land in medieval Wales was divided into ''cantrefi'', which wer ...
s of
Penfro (the
commote
A commote ( Welsh ''cwmwd'', sometimes spelt in older documents as ''cymwd'', plural ''cymydau'', less frequently ''cymydoedd'')''Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval Wale ...
of Coedrath) and
Cantref Gwarthaf (the commote of Efelfre).
Name
It derived its
Welsh name,
Arberth, from the town and district of the same name, which means "(district) by the wood" (i.e. the forest of Coedrath),
and which was the headquarters of the hundred.
Region
The hundred spanned the
linguistic boundary, with the parishes of Velfrey being identified by
George Owen as Welsh-speaking, and the southern coastal part being English-speaking, part of
Little England beyond Wales. The area in 1887 was .
Demographics
The hundred incorporated twenty two
parishes. The parliamentary election polling book for 1812 is held at the National Library of Wales. The 1821 census provided detailed demographics for the hundred. The total population was 11,321, living in 2,249 properties. At the 1831 census, the hundred had a population of 11,942 in 2,343 houses. The population was quoted as 11,469 in an 1887 gazetteer.
Land tax assessments for 1857 to 1949 are held at Pembrokeshire Archives.
Discontinuation
The hundred courts declined from the 17th century, and most of their powers were extinguished with the establishment of
county courts in 1867. Until 1974 Wales was divided into
civil parishes, which to some extent coincided with ecclesiastical parishes, and in 1975 it was divided into
communities
A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...
.
The jurisdiction of hundred courts was finally curtailed by the
Administration of Justice Act 1977
The Administration of Justice Act 1977 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Part I - General Section 6 - Temporary additional judges for Employment Appeal Tribunal
This section was repealed by section 159(3) of, and Schedule 17 to ...
.
References
{{Pembrokeshire hundreds
History of Pembrokeshire
Narberth, Pembrokeshire
