Geographical Description
:"Hanslape, Hanslap, or Hanslope. This Parish, which is situated in
the north-eastern part of the County, on the verge of Northamptonshire, (and
anciently included Castlethorpe,) is about three miles and a half long, and two
miles and a half in breadth. It is separated from Grafton Regis, Co.
Northampton, by the little River Tove; has on its Eastern side, Stoke
Goldington; Gayhurst, Little Linford, and Haversham on the South; and Cosgrove
and Northamptonshire on the West; being about five miles north of
Stoney-Stratford."
- taken from The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham, by
George Lipscomb, 1847.
Maps (please note that while file sizes have been reduced as much as possible, some pages will still take a while o load due to the complexity of the maps) :
The
Ancient Hundreds (1066)
Hundreds were first mentioned in the Laws of Edgar in 970, and by the time
of Ethelred the term referred to an area of one hundred hides for the purpose
of taxation. For many centuries after this the Hundreds were used as a fiscal,
judicial and sometimes a military district. These units were thus used for the
collection of Danegeld (later subsidies), and the holding of courts for both
civil and criminal matters, originally these were held every month, then every
fortnight and eventually after 1234 every three weeks. In addition, a sheriff
would tour the county twice a year to hear special complaints.
In 1086 at the time of the Domesday Survey there were 18 hundreds in
Buckinghamshire, and possibly even as early as that they had become grouped
into threes. By the beginning of the forteenth century, with one exception each
had become a complete Hundred, thus reducing the total to eight. In 1086 the
Hundreds were Stone, Risborough and Aylesbury (which became Aylesbury Hundred),
Burnham, Desborough and Stoke (continued three separate Hundreds known as the
The Three Hundreds of Chiltern), Ixhill, Ashendon and Waddesdon (which became
Ashendon Hundred), Yardley, Cottesloe and Mursley (which became Cottesloe
Hundred), Stodfold, Rowley and Lamua (which became Buckingham Hundred), and
Bunsty, Seckloe and Moulsoe (which became Newport Hundred).
'Bunsty' was written in the Doomsday survery as 'Bonestou'.
