THE HUNDRED OF BRAY

CONTAINING THE PARISH OF
BRAY WITH THE BOROUGH OF MAIDENHEAD

The hundred of Bray seems to have been co-extensive with the parish at the time of the Domesday Survey, (fn. 1) though it is possible that Bray Wood was then in Beynhurst Hundred. (fn. 2) It was one of the Seven Hundreds of Windsor Forest which were often termed 'the Seven Hundreds of Cobham and Bray' during the 13th and 14th centuries. Wargrave and Heywood were included in Bray Hundred (fn. 3) in the 13th century, as also was a tenement in Barkham belonging to Ralf de Binton, who had withdrawn his suit at the hundred court before 1276. (fn. 4) Wargrave had been added to the hundred of that name at the same time, (fn. 5) but Heywood was disputed between Bray and the parish of White Waltham until 1807, when the quarrel was amicably settled by resolution of the vestry assembled at Bray and the right of White Waltham to the debatable land was acknowledged. (fn. 6)

Index Map to the Hundreds of Bray and Cookham

An interesting survey of the hundred and parish was made in 1286 (fn. 7) in connexion with a dispute between the Dean of Salisbury and the Abbot of Cirencester about the tithes of Cruchfield, which the dean claimed on the ground that Cruchfield was in the Frith and that all forest tithes had been granted to him by charter. (fn. 8) It was, however, decided that though Cruchfield was in the Frith it belonged to the parish of Bray, and the boundaries given in the survey are, as far as they can be identified, the same as those of the present time. (fn. 9) The hundred always belonged to the Crown and followed the descent of the manor. (fn. 10)

Footnotes