Wirral Hundred
Hundred in the County of Cheshire
Historical Forms
- Wilaveston Hundred 1086 DB
- hundredum de Wilaston(a) 1278 Ipm 1353 1360 BPR
- hundredum de wylaston 1499 Sheaf
- Wyrhale 1259 Court
- Caldeihundredum 1182 P
- Caldeiehundredum 1183 ib
- Caldeahundredum 1185 ib
- Caldehundredum 1308 IpmR
- Calday Hundred 1362 Orm2
- Hundredum de Caldeia 1184 P
- Hundred' de Calday 1536 Plea
- the Hundred of Caldey in Wyrehall Hundred 1428 Orm2
- curia de Kaldeye 1238 Ipm
- Gobbinshire 1883,1885 Sheaf13pp.10,211
- Stowodd 1335 Mont 15
Etymology
v. hundred . Named after Willaston 232infra , the DB hundred contained the later Wirral Hundred, and also the townships Upton, Wervin, Picton, Guilden Sutton and Mickle Trafford 142, 137, 132, 126, 133supra , now in Broxton Hundred. The DB township of Edelaue has been identified with Hadlow 232infra in Willaston.That of Sumreford , though listed among manors of Wilaveston Hundred in DB f. 267 b, and therefore thought to be Tranmere 257infra by Ormerod, is identified with Somerford Booths 163 by Tait who supposes the omission of the Hamestan (Macclesfield) Hundred rubric, cf. Tait 15, 209, Orm2 ii353. The change of the name and boundaries of the hundred cannot be dated precisely.The old name is still in legal use down to 1360. The boundary change appears to have been made between 1086 and 1200. The new name, taken from the regional-name Wirral 17, is in regular use from 1259. The process of change may have followed a course parallel to that supposed for Macclesfield Hundred 151, the new name arising from the creation of the Forest of Wirral in 1120. It seems probable that after the creation of the forest jurisdiction, the hundred and the forest would be so nearly co-extensive that the regional name would be applied to both, the old hundred-name surviving only in occasional use as the official style of a hundred- court at Willaston.