Wangford 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 ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, England, consisting of . Wangford Hundred was an area of around from west to east and five across. The

River Waveney The River Waveney is a river which forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England, for much of its length within The Broads. The "ey" part of the name means "river" thus the name is tautological. Course The source of the River Wavene ...

formed its northern border separating it from

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. To the east lay

Mutford and Lothingland Hundred Mutford and Lothingland was a hundred of Suffolk, with an area of . Lowestoft Ness, the most easterly point of Great Britain fell within its bounds. Мutford and Lothingland Hundred formed the north-eastern corner of Suffolk. Around wide, but fro ...

, to the south

Blything Hundred Blything was a hundred of eastern Suffolk, and with an area of was the largest of Suffolk's 21 hundreds. The origins of the hundred centre on the ancient royal estate of Blythburgh, whose hall housed the hundred's central meeting place. Listed ...

and to the west

Hoxne Hundred Hoxne was a hundred (subdivision), hundred of Suffolk, with an area of . Hoxne Hundred was a fertile district averaging about nine miles (14 km) in length and breadth. It was bounded on the north by the River Waveney which separates it from No ...

. It is a fertile district, particularly in the broad vale of the Waveney with its rich marshes for feeding cattle. On the south side of the vale the land becomes hilly with an agricultural region of predominantly

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...

soil. The towns of Bungay and

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fli ...

are the largest settlements in the former hundred. The hundred also contained the thirteen parishes (Ilketshall, South Elmham, Flixton and Homersfield) collectively known as The Saints.

Wainford

Listed as ''Wanneforda'' (''inter alia'') 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 ...

, the name is said by

Walter Skeat Walter William Skeat, (21 November 18356 October 1912) was a British philologist and Anglican deacon. The pre-eminent British philologist of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in t ...

to derive from an alternative name for the Waveney and thus to mean "ford across the Waveney".W.W. Skeat, ''The Place-Names of Suffolk'' (Deighton, Bell and Company, Cambridge 1913)
p. 38
(Internet Archive)

Eilert Ekwall Bror Oscar Eilert Ekwall (born 8 January 1877 in Vallsjö (now in Sävsjö, Jönköpings län), Sweden, died 23 November 1964 in Lund, Skåne län, Sweden), known as Eilert Ekwall, was Professor of English at Sweden's Lund University from 1909 to ...

, however, taking other early forms ''Wainforda'', ''Weinforde'' and ''Weineford'' found in the 11th and 12th centuries, derived it (like

Wangford Wangford is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Wangford with Henham, in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England, just off the A12 trunk road on the edge of the Henham Park estate just outside Southwo ...

in West Suffolk) from Old English ''wægn-ford'', a ford that can be passed by a wagon or wain. In either case the ford appears to be identified with the site of Wainford Mill, just to the east of Bungay, which in 1491 occurs as ''Waynforth''; these authorities consider that the Wangford Hundred takes its name from this Wainford. The name was also given to the

Wainford Rural District Wainford Rural District was a rural district in East Suffolk (county), East Suffolk, England, between 1934 and 1974. It was created by a merger of the disbanded Wangford Rural District and parts of Blything Rural District, and contained the grou ...

which existed between 1934 and 1974. Wainford is located immediately downstream of a

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

on the Waveney, on the eastern side of the bow of the river which surrounds the town of Bungay, below which it flows through the rich level pastures eastwards towards

. On the north bank is the parish of

Ditchingham Ditchingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located across the River Waveney from Bungay, Suffolk.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map OL40 - The Broads''. . History Ditchingham's name is of Anglo-S ...

, the river meadows of which formed part of the ancient manor of Pirnhow. The road at Wainford crosses a succession of three bridges. A small old bridge on the south side of the mill crosses a narrow active channel possibly the

leat A leat (; also lete or leet, or millstream) is the name, common in the south and west of England and in Wales, for an artificial watercourse or aqueduct dug into the ground, especially one supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond. Other ...

; the bridge immediately north of the mill spanned the principal

mill race A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a mi ...

; and the most northerly bridge crosses the main channel of the Waveney. The mill was active into the 20th century, when a large grain

silo A silo (from the Greek σιρός – ''siros'', "pit for holding grain") is a structure for storing bulk materials. Silos are used in agriculture to store fermented feed known as silage, not to be confused with a grain bin, which is used t ...

was built on the east side of the road. The ford was presumably in use before the full embankment of the river. A total of 24 places with a population of around 1025 households are mentioned in the Domesday Book.Wangford Hundred
Domesday Map. Retrieved 2011-04-18. It is not to be confused with the two other Wangfords in Suffolk.

Parishes

Wangford Hundred consisted of the following 27 parishes:1841 Census

References

{{Coord, 52.4, 1.45, type:adm3rd_dim:20000_region:GB-SFK, display=title Hundreds of Suffolk