STAINE HUNDRED
Stanie hundred, first recorded in Domesday Book and approximately
diamond-shaped, is sited between Cambridge and Newmarket, with the
middle of the hundred lying c. 9 km. from both towns. (fn. 1) Its name is derived
from an Old English word for stone, perhaps connected to its court's shared
meeting place at Mutlow hill in Great Wilbraham parish. (fn. 2) In 1086 Staine hundred
included six or seven vills, mostly later independent parishes: from the south-west
Great and Little Wilbraham, Stow and Quy, later combined into one parish,
Bottisham, and the two Swaffhams, later Swaffham Bulbeck and Swaffham Prior.
The four south-western vills were grouped in pairs to form 10-hide blocks, the other
three vills being assessed at 10 hides each. Of the hundred's fifty hides, only two,
in the Wilbrahams, were royal demesne. (fn. 3) The hundred was stable in its parochial
composition between the 11th century and the early 20th, but in 1954 698 a. (282
ha.) at its north-west edge was included in the newly created parish of Reach. (fn. 4)
The northern and southern ends of the hundred's south-western boundary follow
man-made features, the Fleam Dyke on the south and part of Bottisham lode on
the north. Its central section runs along former watercourses which flowed through
the fenland until drained in the 17th century. (fn. 5) The southern boundary follows the
line of the Icknield way, which eventually, between 1745 and 1872, formed part of
the Great Chesterford to Newmarket turnpike. (fn. 6) The straight north-eastern boundary
follows the Devil's Ditch in its southern portion, and Reach lode further north, as
far as the river Cam, which forms the north-western boundary.
The hundred remained in the king's hands throughout the Middle Ages, being
managed and farmed by a bailiff whom it shared with its neighbours, Flendish and
Staploe hundreds. From the 1260s to the 1280s he may have rendered 9-11 marks
a year as its farm. Between 1286 and 1299 the sum due from it was apparently raised
to £10. (fn. 7) The hundred court met twice a year during the Middle Ages. (fn. 8) In the 1230s
view of frankpledge was probably exercised by nine lords. (fn. 9) In the late 13th century
view of frankpledge was exercised by seven or eight lords and the assizes of bread
and ale by at least four of them. In 1299 the Templars at Great and Little Wilbraham
were entitled to waif and tumbrel. Although the Crown briefly alienated the three
hundreds to the west, east, and south-east of Staine hundred in the 1550s, it apparently retained Staine hundred.
From the mid 1830s the hundred's six parishes were divided between two poorlaw unions and consequently lay from 1894 in different rural districts: the two
Wilbrahams and Stow cum Quy belonged from 1836 to Chesterton union and later
to Chesterton rural district. Bottisham and the two Swaffhams lay from 1835 in
Newmarket union, from 1894 in Newmarket rural district. (fn. 10) The northern half of
Bottisham parish, made in 1863 into a separate ecclesiastical parish called Lode,
became also a distinct civil parish in 1894. (fn. 11) From 1974 the area within the hundred
lay within South Cambridgeshire district. (fn. 12)