List of hundreds in Dorset

This is a list of hundreds in the county of Dorset, England. Between the Anglo-Saxon period and the Local Government Act (1888), the county of Dorset was divided into hundreds and boroughs (and from the mediaeval period, liberties as well). The Local Government Act (1888) replaced the hundreds and liberties with urban and rural districts, based on the sanitary districts of the Poor Law Unions which existed in parallel with the hundreds/liberties from 1834.

While numerous minor changes took place during that period, the general pattern remained stable. The subdivisions below within hundreds and liberties are the old civil parishes, into which the tithings (the original sub-divisions of the hundreds) came to be fitted. (Civil parish is used here in the sense of an "area for which a poor rate is or can be assessed", a unit which has thus been in existence de facto from the establishment of the Elizabethan Poor Law; the term itself dates from mid 19th century legislation such as the Poor Law Amendment Act 1866.)

The following are the units existing immediately prior to the Act of 1834, with some additional changes noted up to the reforms of the Local Government Act 1894 and their immediate aftermath. Liberties and Boroughs are listed for completeness.

Prior to the 1834 Act, the hundreds were grouped, mostly for taxation purposes, by divisions, which were rearranged by local Act of Parliament in 1830. See List of divisions in Dorset.

Map

Hundreds

Badbury Hundred:

Gussage St Michael

Tarrant Crawford

Wimborne Minster (a borough pre-Conquest)

(Holt and Pamphill were created in 1894 from Wimborne Minster, and Colehill in 1896 from Holt)

Beaminster Forum and Redhone Hundred:

Chardstock (transferred to Devon 1896)

Toller Porcorum (part)

Wambrook (transferred to Somerset 1895)

Bere Regis Hundred:

Winterborne Kingston

(Milborne Stileham was created from Bere Regis and Winterborne Kingston in 1866)

Brownshall Hundred:

Holwell (transferred from Somerset 1844)

Stock Gaylard (absorbed by Lydlinch 1884)

Stourton Caundle

Buckland Newton Hundred:

Buckland Newton

Glanvilles Wootton

Pulham (part)

Cerne, Totcombe and Modbury Hundred:

Hawkchurch (part) (transferred to Devon 1896)

Cogdean Hundred:

Charlton Marshall

Lytchett Matravers

Lytchett Minster

Poole (part of Canford Magna; borough from 1248; County of Itself 1571)

Sturminster Marshall

(Kinson, Longfleet and Parkstone were created from Canford Magna 1866)

Coombs Ditch Hundred:

Blandford Forum (borough from 1605)

Blandford St Mary

Winterborne Clenston

Winterborne Tomson

Winterborne Whitchurch

Corfe Castle Hundred:

Corfe Castle (borough from 1268 or 1576)

Cranborne Hundred:

Belchalwell (divided between Okeford Fitzpaine and Fifehead Neville 1884)

Cranborne (part)

East Woodyates (created 1858)

Edmondsham (part)

Hampreston (part; entire from the 1860s, when the other part was transferred from Hampshire)

Tarrant Gunville

Tarrant Rushton

Tollard Royal (divided between Dorset and Wiltshire until the 1880s, when the Dorset part was transferred to Wiltshire)

(Alderholt and Verwood were created from Cranborne in 1894)

Culliford Tree Hundred:

Buckland Ripers

Chickerell (part)

Melcombe Regis (part of Radipole; a borough from 1268)

Upwey (part)

Winterborne Came (part)

Winterborne Herringston

Winterborne Monkton

Eggerton or Eggardon Hundred:

Powerstock (part)

Winterbourne Abbas

Godderthorne Hundred:

Hasilor or Hasler Hundred:

Hundredsbarrow Hundred (formerly often Barrow Hundred)

Knowlton Hundred:

Gussage All Saints

Loosebarrow Hundred:

Pimperne Hundred:

Fifehead Neville

Hazelbury Bryan

Iwerne Stepleton

Langton Long Blandford

Tarrant Keyneston

Tarrant Launceston

Tarrant Rawston

Winterborne Houghton

Winterborne Stickland

Puddletown Hundred:

Milborne St Andrew (part)

Redlane or Redland Hundred:

Buckhorn Weston

Fifehead Magdalen

Hanford (from 1858)

Iwerne Courtney

Rowbarrow or Rowberrow Hundred:

Langton Matravers

Worth Matravers

Rushmore Hundred:

Winterborne Zelston

St George's Hundred (later often George Hundred):

Bradford Peverell

Frome Whitfield (absorbed by Dorchester Holy Trinity in 1610)

Winterborne St Martin

Sherborne Hundred:

Bishops Caundle

Leweston (from 1858)

Sherborne (a borough from 1227)

Sixpenny Handley Hundred:

Sixpenny Handley

Sturminster Newton Hundred:

Okeford Fitzpaine

Sturminster Newton

Tollerford Hundred:

East Chelborough

Frome St Quintin

Frome Vauchurch

Melbury Sampford

Toller Porcorum (part)

West Chelborough

Uggescombe Hundred:

Hawkchurch (part)

Kingston Russell

Langton Herring

Weymouth (part of Wyke Regis; a borough from 1252)

Winterbourne Steepleton

Up Wimborne or Monkton Up Wimborne Hundred

Cranborne (part)

Tarrant Monkton

Whitchurch Canonicorum Hundred:

Catherston Leweston

Stanton St Gabriel

Stockland (part) (transferred to Devon 1844)

Thorncombe (transferred to Devon 1844 and back to Dorset 1896)

Whitchurch Canonicorum

Wootton Fitzpaine

Whiteway Hundred:

Melcombe Horsey

Wimborne St Giles Hundred:

Wimborne All Saints (absorbed by Wimborne St Giles 1732)

Wimborne St Giles

West Woodyates (created 1858)

Winfrith Hundred:

Moreton (part)

Owermoigne (later a separate liberty)

Watercombe (from 1858)

Winfrith Newburgh

Yetminster Hundred:

Clifton Maybank

(Chetnole and Leigh were created from Yetminster in 1866)

Liberties

For full details see List of liberties in Dorset

Boroughs

Sources

Boswell, Edward, 1833: The Civil Division of the County of Dorset (published on CD by Archive CD Books Ltd, 1992)
Hutchins, John, History of Dorset, vols 1-4 (3rd ed 1861-70; reprinted by EP Publishing, Wakefield, 1973)
Mills, A. D., 1977, 1980, 1989: Place Names of Dorset, parts 1-3. English Place Name Society: Survey of English Place Names vols LII, LIII and 59/60

v t e Administrative history of Dorset
Boroughs Divisions Hundreds Liberties Poor law unions Sanitary districts

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