THE HUNDRED OF TANDRIDGE
CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF
|
|
|
|
BLECHINGLEY |
GODSTONE |
TANDRIDGE |
| CATERHAM |
HORNE |
TATSFIELD |
| CHELSHAM |
LIMPSFIELD |
TITSEY |
| CROWHURST |
LINGFIELD |
WARLINGHAM |
| FARLEY |
OXTED |
WOLDINGHAM |
This hundred has remained practically unchanged in its extent since the
Domesday Survey. In 1086 no mention is made of Crowhurst, Horne or
Lingfield, but of these Crowhurst was probably
included in the territory comprised by one of
the large manors of Tandridge or Oxted;
Horne was certainly part of Blechingley, and
Lingfield, which by a post-Domesday authority (fn. 1)
is said to have been granted to the New Minster
at Winchester under Edgar, seems to have been
omitted. One manor, tentatively identified as
that of Horley, now in Reigate Hundred, is
mentioned under Tandridge Hundred in the
Survey, a location which may have been due
to its position on the borders of the two
hundreds. (fn. 2) It is noticeable that about one-sixth of all the serfs in Surrey belong to
Tandridge Hundred. (fn. 3)
INDEX MAP TO THE HUNDRED OF TANDRIDGE
Tandridge was from earliest times a royal
hundred, (fn. 4) and there is little that is noteworthy
in its history. The custody of the hundred
was granted to Thomas Hunt in the reign of
James I. (fn. 5)
In 1533 Sir John Gainsford of Crowhurst,
writing to Cromwell, comments on the amount of crime and evil-doing
which he had lately observed in the hundred, adding … 'if ye be not
good master to the country where I dwell, I cannot tell how poor men shall
live in quiet, for within these two years more unthrifty deeds have been done
in the hundred of Tanredge than have been done in the whole shire.' (fn. 6)
The Parliamentary Survey of the hundreds of Reigate and Tandridge,
'late of Charles Stuart,' made in 1651, (fn. 7) records that the court leets for both
hundreds were held at Undersnow (in Tandridge parish (fn. 8) ) at the usual times,
and the lord might call or keep a court leet at any of the townships and
tithings which paid a common fine. At the court held at Michaelmas
constables and tithingmen for the past year were discharged and new ones
sworn. The surveyors could not learn that there was any three weeks court
for these hundreds, though they believed the lord thereof had the right to
hold them if he chose. The courts were held by the sheriff of the county.
Undersnow, called Hundredsnow in a deed of 1656, (fn. 9) was the place where three
ways met at the south-east of Rooksnest Park. Mr. Glover, an antiquarian
solicitor of Reigate, possessed the court rolls of the years 1704 to 1720, from
which it appeared that constables and head boroughs were elected then for
thirty-two parishes, boroughs or tithings in Tandridge, and for Chipstead,
Buckland, Burstow and Gatton in Reigate Hundred. (fn. 10)