THE HUNDRED OF WESTBURY
WESTBURY hundred lies on the west bank of the Severn in two separate
parts. From the mid 17th century it comprised the parishes of Blaisdon,
Newnham, Tidenham, and Woolaston, and parts of Churcham and
Westbury-on-Severn. The remainder of Churcham, comprising Highnam
manor, was in Dudstone and King's Barton hundred, having been in Longbridge
hundred in 1086; Rodley tithing in Westbury parish was in the Duchy of Lancaster
hundred; the whole of each parish, however, is treated in the present volume.
The constitution of the hundred underwent several changes between the Norman
Conquest and the mid 17th century. In 1066 Westbury hundred included Westbury,
Churcham, Longhope, Bulley, the estates of Stears, Hyde, and Ruddle in Newnham,
and probably Blaisdon, as part of Longhope, and Minsterworth, containing a total of
50 hides. (fn. 1) The Forest of Dean manors of Dean and English Bicknor, containing three
hides and a half yardland, were recorded as part of Westbury hundred in 1086, but
Dean had been granted by Edward the Confessor free of geld, for the keeping of the
forest. (fn. 2) By 1221 English Bicknor and Dean, by then divided into Mitcheldean, Littledean, and Ruardean, lay in St. Briavels hundred. (fn. 3) Westbury hundred was further
reduced in area by the 15th century when the estates of the Duchy of Lancaster in
Bulley, Longhope, Minsterworth, and Westbury came to be regarded as a separate
hundred. (fn. 4) The Duchy of Lancaster hundred included the tithing of Rodley in Westbury parish, (fn. 5) and from the mid 16th century to the mid 17th the tithings of Adsett and
Elton were also regarded as part of the Duchy hundred (fn. 6) because they formed part of
Rodley manor, which was considerably more extensive than Rodley tithing. (fn. 7) The
doubtful claim of the whole of Rodley manor to be in the Duchy hundred was revived
in the 19th century. (fn. 8) Northwood tithing in Westbury parish was recorded within St.
Briavels hundred in 1608, (fn. 9) but it is possible that only detached parts of Flaxley parish
at Northwood Green and Walmore Common were concerned.
Tidenham and Woolaston became part of Westbury hundred in 1536. In 1066
Tidenham and Lancaut had formed Tidenham hundred, amounting to 30 hides, while
Woolaston had been divided between Lydney hundred, which included the two estates
at Aluredston in Woolaston, and Twyford hundred, which consisted of only two estates
at Woolaston and Madgett amounting to no more than five hides. (fn. 10) Tidenham hundred
is not found recorded after 1086, and apparently was merged with Twyford hundred
by the mid 13th century. (fn. 11) During Henry III's reign Twyford hundred, as part of the
marcher lordship of Striguil, was withdrawn from the county. It had presumably by
then absorbed Aluredston, since the lord of Striguil's liberty was said to stretch from
the Cone brook, which formed the eastern boundary of Woolaston, to Chepstow
Bridge. (fn. 12) The reunion of Tidenham and Woolaston with Gloucestershire in 1536 and
their inclusion in Westbury hundred was part of Henry VIII's reorganization of the
administration of Wales; (fn. 13) although they were sometimes omitted from returns and
surveys of the hundred in the 16th and 17th centuries (fn. 14) they thenceforth remained part
of the hundred.
Figure 1:
The Hundred of Westbury 1845
Westbury hundred belonged to the Crown, the sheriff accounting for the profits of
courts in 1169 (fn. 15) and holding courts in the late 18th century. (fn. 16) Twyford hundred was
held by the Crown until granted to the Earl Marshal, lord of Striguil, by Henry III, (fn. 17)
and descended with Striguil (fn. 18) until its inclusion in Westbury in 1536.
No records of the Westbury hundred court have been found. In 1169 an income of
20s. was received from the court (fn. 19) and in 1247 the jurors presented that the hundred
was worth 2 marks a year. (fn. 20) The court met every three weeks early in the 14th century. (fn. 21)
In common with the other hundreds west of the River Severn no Englishry was
presented or murdrum fine due from the hundred in the 13th century. (fn. 22) High constables
were sworn between 1673 and 1716 and courts continued to be held in the late 18th
century. (fn. 23) The perquisites of the manor of Tidenham and hundred of Twyford were
worth £68 8s. 3½d. in 1248, (fn. 24) and in the late 13th century the reeve of Tidenham
regularly accounted for pleas and perquisites of the manor and hundred courts. (fn. 25)
Franchises in Tidenham manor claimed by the Duke of Norfolk in 1468 included rights
usually associated with hundredal jurisdiction, and by the late 16th century there was
a court leet in Tidenham. (fn. 26) In Westbury hundred the borough of Newnham was
exempted from the hundred in the late 12th century, (fn. 27) and in 1286-7 Edmund, Earl of
Lancaster, claimed view of frankpledge, vetitum namium, and assize of bread and ale
in his manors of Rodley and Minsterworth, which were exempt from all suits of shire
and hundred. (fn. 28) The tithing of Elton, however, which was usually regarded as part of
Rodley manor, (fn. 29) paid the common fine and a rent called tithing silver to Westbury
hundred in 1659, together with Ruddle, Westbury, Upper Ley, Lower Ley, Blaisdon,
and Churcham, amounting to £9 6s. 8d. The courts leet, courts baron, sheriff's tourn,
hundred courts, and views of frankpledge together with fines, perquisites, waifs,
estrays, deodands, goods and chattels of felons, fugitives, condemned persons, and
outlaws in the hundreds of Botloe and Westbury were then said to be worth 26s. 8d. (fn. 30)
Courts leet were held for Ruddle manor in the late 18th century, (fn. 31) but Blaisdon,
Churcham, and Westbury appear to have owed suit to the hundred court. The hundred
meeting place cannot be identified with any certainty, but Malsdon in Bollow tithing
in Westbury may have been the medieval site. (fn. 32) The name of Twyford hundred is
retained in a corrupt form as Wyvern Pond in Woolaston. (fn. 33)
The parishes within the hundred lie in two groups west of the Severn on the relatively
low ground between the tidal river and the higher land of the Forest of Dean and May
Hill. The northern part of the hundred between Gloucester and Newnham is gently
rolling, lowlying land which rises in only a few places more than 100 feet above sea
level and is subject to seasonal flooding of meadows along the river and at Walmore in
Westbury. Only in the western parts of Blaisdon and Newnham does the Keuper Marl
and Lower Lias of the river basin give way to the Silurian limestones and shales and the
Old Red Sandstone as the land rises steeply to the wooded hills adjoining the Forest of
Dean. The southern part of the hundred containing Tidenham and Woolaston is of a
different character. There is only a narrow belt of level riverside land formed of the
Keuper Marl, and both parishes have a large proportion of hilly, wooded, and waste
land which was chiefly within the medieval Tidenham Chase. Most of the Carboniferous Limestone plateau lies over 500 feet above sea level with cliffs up to 200 feet
high dropping abruptly to the River Wye.
The settlements within the area are scattered, and apart from the former borough of
Newnham the only nucleated villages are the small ones of Blaisdon and Westbury-onSevern. There are numerous hamlets and isolated farms bearing witness to the lengthy
process of clearing woodland; Welsh influence is recalled in the medieval place names
of Walmore and Welchbury in Westbury, and Walleston in Newnham. (fn. 34) In many of
the parishes waste land survived in sufficient quantity for predominantly 18th- and
19th-century hamlets to be built on encroachments, as at Birdwood in Churcham,
Nottswood in Blaisdon, and the hamlets in Tidenham and Woolaston. In the northern
part of the hundred the older houses are mainly timber framed, but in Tidenham and
Woolaston the usual material was stone. Externally the ancient features of most of both
the timber framed and the stone houses are concealed by later rough cast and other
rendering.
The River Severn, which in 1970 was not bridged between Gloucester and Chepstow and therefore formed a barrier to communication, was formerly of great economic
importance to the hundred. Newnham had a thriving trade as a port, chiefly with towns
up river, Bristol, and Ireland; there were other landing places at Cone Pill, Bullo
Pill, and Broadoak, important ferries at Beachley and Newnham, and a number of
lesser crossings; there was also considerable river traffic between the Wye valley and
Bristol. Boat building and salmon and shrimp fishing were carried on extensively until
the 19th century.
The main land routes follow the Severn closely. The Roman road from Gloucester
to Usk following the right bank of the river from the crossing at Newnham to Chepstow was turnpiked in 1757, (fn. 35) as was the road through Westbury to Gloucester in
1725-6. (fn. 36) Another Roman road went westwards from Gloucester to Churcham where
it forked to Mitcheldean and Ross, the latter route also being turnpiked in 1725-6. (fn. 37)
Few routes run northwards from the river; those from Newnham to Littledean and
from Tidenham to St. Briavels are the most important. The first railway to South
Wales, running parallel to the Severn, was opened in 1851, and branches from Grange
Court to Hereford, Newnham to Cinderford, and up the Wye Valley were constructed
in 1853, 1854, and 1876 respectively; (fn. 38) only the main line remained open in 1970.
Much of the hundred formerly lay within the boundaries of the Forest of Dean,
which at its most extensive in the 12th and 13th centuries included all or the greater
part of the parishes in the hundred, but from 1300 the forest was usually more narrowly
defined to exclude the whole hundred. (fn. 39) There is evidence of widespread medieval
assarting in Tidenham and Woolaston, (fn. 40) but Tidenham Chase was not inclosed until
1815. (fn. 41) Open fields existed in all the parishes and were mostly inclosed by a gradual
process between the 15th and early 19th centuries. Farming remains the chief occupation of the hundred, but the importance of fruit growing and cider making, especially from the 18th century, has been replaced by dairy farming in the 20th century,
Gloucester and Chepstow are the principal market towns for the area, and in 1970 those
not employed in agriculture chiefly found work in those towns and in Lydney and
Mitcheldean. The opening of the Severn motorway bridge in 1966 improved communications with Bristol, but only in parts of Tidenham had there been extensive housing
development by 1970, when most of the hundred remained rural in character.