Cheveley Hundred

CHEVELEY HUNDRED.

The hundred lies south-east of Newmarket (Suff.), and stretches between the Icknield way on the north-west and a ridge of boulder clay in the south-east. Its eastern boundary partly runs along the Old Suffolk Road between Bury St. Edmunds and Dalham (Suff.), and its southwestern boundary partly follows the Devil's Ditch. The whole of the eastern boundary and part of the southern one form the county boundary with Suffolk. The hundred name was first recorded in Domesday Book. (fn. 1)

In the 11th century 50 hides were divided between six vills. (fn. 2) Two, Cheveley and Kirtling, of 10 hides each, remained distinct parishes. Saxton, later the hamlet of Saxon Street, was effectively incorporated from the 13th century into its larger neighbour, the 15-hide Woodditton, while the vills of Silverley and Ashley were united civilly probably by the late 13th century and ecclesiastically from the mid 16th.

The hundred remained in the king's hands in the Middle Ages, when the hundred court met twice a year. (fn. 3) The sheriff of Cambridgeshire accounted for the murdrum fine from it each year between 1194 and 1199. (fn. 4) In the late 13th century the hundred shared a bailiff, who farmed it for 5 marks a year, with Radfield hundred. (fn. 5) Between the 1230s and the 1270s the number of lords who exercised view of frankpledge increased from four to six. (fn. 6) The vill of Kirtling attended the sheriff's tourn in the 1230s, but was withdrawn by Queen Eleanor of Provence, who then had its wardship, between c. 1250 and c. 1276. (fn. 7) Four lords had the assizes of bread and of ale in the late 13th century. (fn. 8) Only two of the vills had c. 1235 been within the Cambridgeshire geldable and had rendered wardpenny to the king. The free tenants of the earl of Richmond at Woodditton attended an honorial court in 1334. (fn. 9) Sir John Cheke (d. 1557) was granted Cheveley hundred in 1553 as part of 'Richmonds lands', but returned it to the Crown by exchange in 1557. (fn. 10)

All the parishes were part of Newmarket poor-law union between 1835 and 1894, of Newmarket rural district between 1894 and 1974, and of East Cambridgeshire district from 1974. (fn. 11)