The hundredal boundaries marked on this
map are largely conjectural. There are many reasons for this. It was
not until the mid-fourteenth century at least, and certainly after
the date of the subsidy roll of 1334-5, that the boundaries assumed
anything approximating to the form in which they are now known; from
time to time hundreds were merged; vills were eliminated and merged
into the hundreds and as a consequence the original lines of
division are either completely lost or at best very uncertain. There
are no maps contemporary with the subsidy and maps of the
seventeenth and eighteenth century have had to be used; all these
differ widely in the placing of the hundredal boundaries and none of
them is entirely consistent with a modern map of the county. For the
most part the boundaries shown on this map are based on Hasted’s
maps of c. 1790 as they appear to correspond more or less
with information contained in the subsidy roll, and are drawn on a
large scale.1
Where two hundreds have been merged into one and the
dividing boundary has been lost, some attempt has been |
|
made
to discover the actual line of division, and to represent the
hundreds as they were at the time when the subsidy was taken. In the
case of Chart and Longbridge hundred this was determined by the line
of the two tributaries of the River Stour which form a natural
division and effectively cut the hundred into two equal parts.
Evidence of place names., in the subsidy roll also suggested that
this was so. Similarly the hundred of Bromley and Beckenham has been
divided along the line of the River Ravensbourne which is in fact
part of the parish boundary. This hundred was not apparently
divided, except into half hundreds until 1347, according to Hasted,
but in this subsidy roll the two halves have been treated as
separate hundreds. Until 1347 it was known as the hundred of
Bromley.2 There was no natural division between the
hundreds of Bridge and Petham but internal evidence as to which
parishes and places lay in which hundred suggested the line that has
been drawn.
1 Hasted, E., History of Kent
I-IV, 1778-1799
2 Ibid., I, p.80. |