THE HUNDRED OF CHARLTON
CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF
|
| BARKHAM |
HURST |
SWALLOWFIELD |
| FINCHAMPSTEAD |
SHINFIELD |
|
The above list with the tithing of Earley in Sonning (fn. 1) represents
the extent of the hundred in 1831. (fn. 2) Since that date there has been
a readjustment by the addition of the liberty of Broad Hinton in Hurst,
which was annexed to Berkshire in 1844, having previously, although
situated geographically in the hundred of Charlton, belonged legally to the
county of Wilts. Portions of
Swallowfield and Shinfield, also in
the county of Wilts., were added
to Charlton at the same time. (fn. 3)
All the above-mentioned townships except Broad Hinton are
given in the Domesday Survey of
the hundred, and at that date
Remenham, Sonning (which then
included all the parishes in the
present hundred of Sonning) and
Wargrave were also included. The
whole was then assessed at 44 hides,
which was less than a third of the
pre-Conquest assessment. (fn. 4)
Index Map to the Hundred of Charlton
Before 1224 Sonning had
been withdrawn by the Bishops
of Salisbury and formed into a
hundred, and Wargrave had also
been separated from Charlton, (fn. 5)
whilst Remenham was added to
Beynhurst before 1286. (fn. 6) From that time until 1844 the extent of the
hundred remained unaltered. (fn. 7)
The hundred of Charlton was one of the seven hundreds of Windsor
Forest. It remained in the hands of the king. (fn. 8) and its jurisdiction was
probably eventually merged in that of the court of the Seven Hundreds of
Cookham and Bray. (fn. 9)
Footnotes
| 1 |
This tithing is taken under the hundred of Sonning. |
| 2 |
Pop. Ret. (1831), i, 10. |
| 3 |
Stat. 2 & 3 Will. IV, cap. 64; 7 & 8 Vict. cap. 61. These places were legally in the hundred of
Ashridge, which was appurtenant to the hundred of Amesbury in Wilts. See under Sonning Hundred. |
| 4 |
V.C.H. Berks. i, 329–30, 335, 340, 359. Broad Hinton was apparently forest land in 1086 and is
not mentioned by name. |
| 5 |
Assize R. 36 (9 Hen. III), m. a.7. Wargrave is here called a 'villata,' later a hundred. |
| 6 |
Lay Subs R. bdle. 73, no. 6. |
| 7 |
Ibid. bdles. 73, no. 5, 7; 74, no. 246; Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), portf. 154, no. 13; Index Villaris
(1680). |
| 8 |
Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 9. |
| 9 |
Ct. R. loc. cit. (court of the Seven Hundreds held 4 & 5 Hen. V for the townships in Charlton
Hundred and some of the townships in Beynhurst and Ripplesmere Hundreds), cf. Cal. Inq. p.m. Hen. VII,
i, 94 (suit of court for Finchampstead owed to hundred of Cookham and Bray). |