THE HUNDRED OF BROADWATER
CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF
|
| ASTON |
HATFIELD or BISHOP'S HATFIELD |
TOTTERIDGE |
| AYOT ST. LAWRENCE |
|
WALKERN |
| AYOT ST. PETER |
KNEBWORTH |
WATTON-AT-STONE |
| BALDOCK |
LETCHWORTH |
WELWYN |
| BENINGTON |
GREAT MUNDEN |
WESTON |
| DATCHWORTH |
LITTLE MUNDEN |
WILLIAN |
| DIGSWELL |
SACOMBE |
GREAT WYMONDLEY |
| GRAVELEY |
STEVENAGE |
LITTLE WYMONDLEY |
The hundred of Broadwater takes its name from a little hamlet on the
boundary line between the parishes of Knebworth and Shephall, at a point
about two miles south of
Stevenage where the main
road from Hertford and a road
from Aston join the Great
North Road.
Index Map to the Hundred of Broadwater
At the time of the Domesday Survey Broadwater Hundred included Shephall, which
is situated in the centre of the
hundred, but was in the 13th
century attached to Cashio
Hundred as a possession of St.
Alban's Abbey; Norton on the
northern boundary and Codicote (with Oxewiche) on the
west, which were at the same
time detached for the like
reason; Langley with Minsden,
and Almshoe (fn. 1) (in Ippollitts),
which were afterwards attached
to Hitchin Hundred; and part
of Tewin, now in Hertford
Hundred, which was probably
attached to Broadwater because
it belonged to the Abbot of
Westminster, one of whose
principal manors in Hertfordshire was at Stevenage.
Two places now in this
hundred are not mentioned in
the Domesday Survey: Baldock, which was in the 12th century formed
out of Weston, and Totteridge, which was a detached part of the parish of
Hatfield about twelve miles south of its mother-church.
Two places mentioned in the Domesday Survey have not been identified:
Wollenwick (Wlwenewiche), (fn. 2) which was probably a portion of Stevenage
parish lying between Wymondley and Burleigh, and which is mentioned as
late as 1381, (fn. 3) and Rodenhanger (Rodehangre, Rodenehangre), which evidently
adjoined Norton, with which it was given to St. Alban's Abbey by King
Ethelred in 1007. (fn. 4)
Broadwater has always been a royal hundred. (fn. 5) The hundred court is said
to have been sometimes held at Stevenage with the county court, but in the
14th century the sheriff's tourn was held at Broadwater at Easter and
Michaelmas. (fn. 6) In 1651 the value of the hundred, with profits, perquisites
and privileges, was £5 10s. yearly. The total of rents and royalties due to
the lord of the hundred amounted to £10 14s. (fn. 7) In 1651 payments amounting to 21s. 4d. for frankpledge were due to the lord of the hundred from
Welwyn, Knebworth, Bardolfhall (Watton), Little Munden, Letchworth
and Wymondley. Rents of assize paid to the sheriff's aid at the same time
from various places amounted to £3, and certainty money from freeholders
at the sheriff's tourn to 12s. 1d. (fn. 8) The waifs, strays, deodands, goods of
felons and fugitives, &c., within the hundred belonged to the lord if the
bailiff of the hundred seized them first, but if any bailiff belonging to a lord
of a manor who had leet within the hundred seized them before the bailiff
of the hundred, then that lord in whose leet they were seized commonly had
the profit and benefit thereof. (fn. 9)
The lords of all the more important manors in the hundred appear
to have had right of view of frankpledge. (fn. 10) The lords of Aston, Ayot St.
Lawrence, Baldock, Benington, Hatfield, Stevenage, Walkern and Weston
had also gallows and tumbrel; those of Datchworth, Knebworth, Great
Munden and Sacombe had gallows.