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 Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, 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:

Chalbury

Gussage St Michael

Hinton Martell

Hinton Parva

Horton

More Crichel

Shapwick

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:

Beaminster

Bradpole

Chedington

Chardstock (transferred to Devon 1896)

Corscombe

Mapperton

Mosterton

Netherbury

North Poorton

South Perrott

Stoke Abbott

Toller Porcorum (part)

Wambrook (transferred to Somerset 1895)

Bere Regis Hundred:

Bere Regis

Winterborne Kingston

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

Brownshall Hundred:

Holwell (transferred from Somerset 1844)

Lydlinch

Stalbridge

Stock Gaylard (absorbed by Lydlinch 1884)

Stourton Caundle

Buckland Newton Hundred:

Buckland Newton

Glanvilles Wootton

Mappowder

Pulham (part)

Cerne, Totcombe and Modbury Hundred:

Cattistock

Cerne Abbas

Godmanstone

Hilfield

Hawkchurch (part) (transferred to Devon 1896)

Nether Cerne

West Compton

Cogdean Hundred:

Canford Magna

Charlton Marshall

Corfe Mullen

Hamworthy

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:

Anderson

Blandford Forum (borough from 1605)

Blandford St Mary

Bloxworth

Winterborne Clenston

Winterborne Tomson

Winterborne Whitchurch

Corfe Castle Hundred:

Corfe Castle (borough from 1268 or 1576)

Cranborne Hundred:

Ashmore

Belchalwell (divided between Okeford Fitzpaine and Fifehead Neville 1884)

Cranborne (part)

East Woodyates (created 1858)

Edmondsham (part)

Farnham

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

Pentridge

Shillingstone

Tarrant Gunville

Tarrant Rushton

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

Turnworth

West Parley

Witchampton

(Alderholt and Verwood were created from Cranborne in 1894)

Culliford Tree Hundred:

Broadwey

Buckland Ripers

Chickerell (part)

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

Osmington

Radipole

Upwey (part)

West Knighton

West Stafford

Whitcombe

Winterborne Came (part)

Winterborne Herringston

Winterborne Monkton

Eggerton or Eggardon Hundred:

Askerswell

Hooke

Long Bredy

Powerstock (part)

Winterbourne Abbas

Wraxall

Godderthorne Hundred:

Allington

Shipton Gorge

Walditch

Hasilor or Hasler Hundred:

Arne

Church Knowle

East Holme

Kimmeridge

Steeple

Tyneham

Hundredsbarrow Hundred (formerly often Barrow Hundred)

Affpuddle

Turners Puddle

Knowlton Hundred:

Gussage All Saints

Long Crichel

Woodlands

Loosebarrow Hundred:

Almer

Morden

Spetisbury

Pimperne Hundred:

Bryanston

Durweston

Fifehead Neville

Hammoon

Hazelbury Bryan

Iwerne Stepleton

Langton Long Blandford

Pimperne

Stourpaine

Tarrant Hinton

Tarrant Keyneston

Tarrant Launceston

Tarrant Rawston

Winterborne Houghton

Winterborne Stickland

Puddletown Hundred:

Athelhampton

Burleston

Milborne St Andrew (part)

Puddletown

Tincleton

Tolpuddle

Redlane or Redland Hundred:

Buckhorn Weston

Child Okeford

East Stour

Fifehead Magdalen

Hanford (from 1858)

Iwerne Courtney

Kington Magna

Manston

Silton

Sutton Waldron

Todber

West Stour

Rowbarrow or Rowberrow Hundred:

Langton Matravers

Studland

Swanage

Worth Matravers

Rushmore Hundred:

Winterborne Zelston

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

Bradford Peverell

Broadmayne

Charminster

Frome Whitfield (absorbed by Dorchester Holy Trinity in 1610)

Stinsford

Stratton

Winterborne St Martin

Sherborne Hundred:

Beer Hackett

Bishops Caundle

Bradford Abbas

Castleton

Caundle Marsh

Folke

Haydon

Holnest

Leweston (from 1858)

Lillington

Longburton

Nether Compton

North Wootton

Oborne

Over Compton

Purse Caundle

Sherborne (a borough from 1227)

Thornford

Up Cerne

Sixpenny Handley Hundred:

Cann

Compton Abbas

East Orchard

Fontmell Magna

Iwerne Minster

Melbury Abbas

Sixpenny Handley

West Orchard

Sturminster Newton Hundred:

Hinton St Mary

Margaret Marsh

Marnhull

Okeford Fitzpaine

Sturminster Newton

Tollerford Hundred:

Chilfrome

East Chelborough

Evershot

Frome St Quintin

Frome Vauchurch

Maiden Newton

Melbury Sampford

Rampisham

Toller Fratrum

Toller Porcorum (part)

West Chelborough

Wynford Eagle

Uggescombe Hundred:

Abbotsbury

Chilcombe

Fleet

Hawkchurch (part)

Kingston Russell

Langton Herring

Littlebredy

Litton Cheney

Portesham

Puncknowle

Swyre

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

Winterbourne Steepleton

Up Wimborne or Monkton Up Wimborne Hundred

Chettle

Cranborne (part)

Tarrant Monkton

Whitchurch Canonicorum Hundred:

Burstock

Catherston Leweston

Charmouth

Chideock

Lyme Regis

Marshwood

Pilsdon

Stanton St Gabriel

Stockland (part) (transferred to Devon 1844)

Symondsbury

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

Whitchurch Canonicorum

Wootton Fitzpaine

Whiteway Hundred:

Cheselbourne

Hilton

Ibberton

Melcombe Horsey

Milton Abbas

Stoke Wake

Woolland

Wimborne St Giles Hundred:

Wimborne All Saints (absorbed by Wimborne St Giles 1732)

Wimborne St Giles

West Woodyates (created 1858)

Winfrith Hundred:

Coombe Keynes

East Lulworth

East Stoke

Moreton (part)

Owermoigne (later a separate liberty)

Poxwell

Warmwell

Watercombe (from 1858)

Winfrith Newburgh

Woodsford

Yetminster Hundred:

Batcombe

Clifton Maybank

Melbury Bubb

Melbury Osmond

Yetminster

(Chetnole and Leigh were created from Yetminster in 1866)

Liberties

Alton Pancras

Bindon Liberty

Broadwindsor

Corfe Castle

Dewlish Liberty

Fordington Liberty

Frampton Liberty

Gillingham Liberty

Halstock

Loders and Bothenhampton Liberty

Owermoigne

Piddlehinton

Piddletrenthide Liberty

Portland

Powerstock Liberty:

Ryme Intrinseca

Stoborough

Stour Provost

Sutton Poyntz Liberty

Sydling St Nicholas

Waybayouse or Wabyhouse Liberty

Wyke Regis and Elwell Liberty

For full details see List of liberties in Dorset

Boroughs

Bridport

Blandford Forum

Dorchester

Lyme Regis

Shaftesbury

Wareham

Weymouth and Melcombe Regis

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.