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Offlow is 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 des ...
in the county of
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked Counties of England, county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwicks ...
, England, located in the south-east of that county. It is named after a
tumulus A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...
or mound in the parish of Swinfen and Packington, 2½ miles south of Lichfield.The English Hundred Names, by Olof Anderson, Lund (Sweden), 1934. Page 146 The hundred is recorded 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 ...
under the name "Offelav".


Derivation of name

The name of the hundred derives from Old English ''
Offa Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æt ...
'', a personal name and ''hlaw'' meaning 'hill' or 'mound'. A large number of Hundred names refer to hills or mounds. Some of these at least are very conspicuous hills, which afford a commanding view of the countryside for miles around. It seems likely that such sites were chosen as hundred meeting places being remote and where interference was most easily avoided. In the case of Offlow, it is a small hill rising to 367 ft. (112 metres), centrally placed in the hundred. The hill is now used for a radio mast.,https://www.geograph.org.uk/showmap.php?gridref=SK121057 retrieved Oct 2018 rather than a hundred meeting place.


History

The origin of the hundred dates from the division of his kingdom by King
Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who b ...
into counties, hundreds and tithings. From the beginning, Staffordshire was divided into the hundreds of Offlow, Pirehill,
Totmonslow Totmonslow is a hundred in the county of Staffordshire, England. The hundred is located in the north-east of Staffordshire, named after the hamlet of the same name, which is a half mile east of Draycott in the Moors. The hamlet was the seat of ...
,
Cuttleston Cuttleston or Cuttlestone is a hundred in the county of Staffordshire, England, located in the centre of that county, south of Stafford. Cuttleston was the most thinly populated and the second smallest of the five Hundreds of Staffordshire. ...
and
Seisdon Seisdon is a rural village in the parish of Trysull and Seisdon, Staffordshire approximately six miles west of Wolverhampton and the name of one of the five hundreds of Staffordshire. The population recorded at the 2011 census does not disting ...
.A Topographical History of Staffordshire, by William Pitt, pub J. Smith (Newcastle-under-Lyme), 1817; page 13
Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of ...
left the jurisdiction of Staffordshire, and Offlow Hundred, when the city was created a county separate from Staffordshire by a charter granted by
Mary I of England Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as "Bloody Mary" by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain from January 1556 until her death in 1558. Sh ...
in 1553, which came into effect with the election of its own Sheriff in December that year. In the 19th century Offlow was the largest in population of the five hundreds of Staffordshire, with a population in 1871 of 250,790 excluding parliamentary boroughs or 299,588 including them, representing 35% of the county.Census of England and Wales 1871, Population tables, Vol. I. Counties;p.345 The importance of the hundreds declined from the 17th century, and most of their functions were extinguished with the establishment of county courts in 1867. In 1894 the Hundred was made obsolete with the establishment of Urban Districts and
Rural District Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the a ...
s in Staffordshire.


Divisions

The hundred was divided into two divisions Offlow North and Offlow South.History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire by William White, publ. Sheffield, 1834; pp.293-296 The area of Offlow North was 75,080 acres and the area of Offlow South was 95,640 acres.The National Gazetteer, publ by Virtue and Co., London, 1868; p. 105 According to the archives in the
Staffordshire Record Office Staffordshire Record Office is the county record office for Staffordshire, England. It is run by Staffordshire County Council, and is located in Eastgate Street, Stafford, behind the William Salt Library. Some records are held at the service's of ...
, the subdivision of the hundred dates back to the 17th century. When the Stafford county parliamentary constituency was divided into a North Division and a South Division by the
Reform Act 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the elect ...
, Offlow North and South were allocated to the North and South county divisions respectively. In 1839 the Staffordshire magistrates decided to adopt the County Police Act of 1839 for the southern division of Offlow South.


Geography

Offlow contained following local government units:Census of England and Wales, 1841; County of Stafford, pp.288-289 Offlow North Offlow South Statfold, although classed in Offlow South, was separated from it by intervening parts of the Offlow North.A Topographical History of Staffordshire, by William Pitt, pub J. Smith (Newcastle-under-Lyme), 1817; page 138 In all, the Hundred comprised 38 parishes and 7 extra parochial places, containing within them around a hundred townships and hamlets (some being chapelries). For example, Swinfen and Packington were hamlets of the ancient parish of Weeford. In addition to the above, Offlow included 4 townships belonging Wolverhampton Parish and several hamlets and townships belonging to the Lichfield parishes of St. Mary and St.Chad, outside the bounds of the City and County of Lichfield. Offlow Hundred consists of south-east Staffordshire extending from the River Dove to the environs of Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The north is more agricultural while the south has the manufacturing districts, with Walsall, Wednesbury and West Bromwich. Its length from north to south is about 30 miles, and its average breadth from eight to twelve miles. It is bounded on the north and north-east by Derbyshire, on the south and south-east by Warwickshire, and on the west by the other four hundreds of Staffordshire. From north to south these are Totmonslow, Pirehill, Cuttleston and Seisdon. It has extensive plains, broken only by gentle undulations, except on its southern and western borders, where some of the hills rise rather abruptly. The lowlands in the valleys of the Trent, Tame, and Dove have been frequently inundated by these rivers, to form rich pastures, celebrated for cattle, and the production of cheese. The market towns within the hundred are Burton-upon-Trent (Burton-on-Trent parish had three other townships in Derbyshire), Tamworth(Tamworth borough was partly in Warwickshire, in which county it had 4 townships), Walsall, Wednesbury, and Lichfield, but the latter formed a county of itself, though locally situated in the centre of Offlow.


Hundred Court

The Hundred Court of Offlow was a
hundred court A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...
at common law, rather than one bestowed with powers by a special statute. It had the same jurisdiction and process as the county court except that the defendant had to reside in the hundred. Most of these common law hundred courts had grown much out of use by the 19th century, but the court was still fully active in the Hundred of Offlow.The Law of Inferior Courts for the Recovery of Debts,by Joseph Moseley,Barrister At Law, publ. V. & R. Stevens & G. S. Norton, Lincoln's Inn, London, 1845;p.394-5 However, the Hundred Court of Offlow was abolished in 1852 and its functions transferred to the county court. The court was held in Walsall, before a steward appointed by the High Sheriff of Staffordshire, at the old Town Hall building.Topographical Dictionary of England, ed. and publ. Samuel Lewis, London, 1835 (3rd ed); Vol.4, article on Walsall


Current local government

The current local government arrangements in Staffordshire were created in 1974 under the
Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...
. Offlow Hundred comprises the present districts of
Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of ...
(except for the parish of Colton and the inner part of the city of Lichfield that was formerly a separate county), Tamworth (Staffordshire part),
Sandwell Sandwell is a metropolitan borough of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county in England. The borough is named after the Sandwell Priory, and spans a densely populated part of the West Midlands conurbation. According to Sandwell Metropo ...
and
Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is the ...
. Also the eastern half of East Staffordshire including the town of
Burton on Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The d ...
.See www.staffordshire.gov.uk as compared with above list of parishes


Notes

{{reflist Hundreds of Staffordshire