Little and Lesnes Hundred

Little and Lesnes was a hundred, a historical land division, in the county of Kent, England. It occupied the northern part of the Lathe of Sutton-at-Hone in the west division of Kent. Little and Lesnes was the northernmost hundred in the whole county of Kent. The hundred existed since ancient times, before the Domesday Book of 1086, until it was made obsolete with the creation of new districts at the end of the nineteenth century.

Today the area that was the Hundred of Little and Lesnes is suburban London, covering the northeast corner of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the northern part of the London Borough of Bexley, with the River Thames to the north, and Watling Street to the south; and roughly centred on the area of Abbey Wood. Little and Lesnes Hundred was approximately, 4 miles (6.5 km) across north to south, and about 7 miles (11.25 km) wide east to west.

Name

The name of the hundred changed over the centuries, and was also linked with names of localities within it. In the Domesday Book of 1086 through the mid-13th century it was called the "Hundred of Litelai", which became "Litlelee", then in 1347 it was recorded as the "Hundred of Litley". By around 1400 it started being referred to as the "Hundred of Little and Lesnes" which continued to be its name for the next 500 years up until the creation of new districts at the end of the nineteenth century when the hundred became obsolete. The spelling "Lessness" is also used at least from the early 19th century, and in some records, the word "Little" was not used in the name and the hundred was referred to by the shorter name "Hundred of Lessness".