The hundred of Box and Stockbridge: Introduction

THE HUNDRED OF BOX AND STOCKBRIDGE

CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF

At the time of the Domesday Survey these parishes were grouped in the two separate Hundreds of 'Estocbridge' (containing Donnington, Fishbourne, Hunston, Mundham, and Rumboldswyke), (fn. 1) and 'Bocse', or 'Bosgrave' (containing Aldingbourne, (fn. 2) Boxgrove with Halnaker, East Hampnett and Strettington, Merston, Runcton in North Mundham, Up Waltham, and Westhampnett). (fn. 3) Oving must at this time have formed part of the 36 hides of Aldingbourne; (fn. 4) Appledram was a part of the manorial Hundred of Bosham and after it had been given by Henry I to Battle Abbey was attached for taxation purposes to the abbey's Hundred of Alciston, in Pevensey Rape, until the Dissolution. (fn. 5) Tangmere, although situated in the middle of Box Hundred, formed part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Hundred of Pagham (later Aldwick).

The two hundreds were still distinct in 1248, (fn. 6) but by 1271 they had been combined. (fn. 7) They continued so combined, the joint hundred figuring, for instance, in the Hundred Rolls of 1275, (fn. 8) the Subsidy Rolls of 1296, 1327, and 1332, (fn. 9) and the Feudal Aid returns of 1428. (fn. 10) But for some purposes they retained their identities until the 16th century. Thus on the Muster Rolls of 1529 the tithings were grouped under the separate Hundreds of Box and Stockbridge, (fn. 11) and in 1571 the courts of the two hundreds were held separately and on different days. (fn. 12) Stockbridge was just west of Kingsham, where the (presumably Roman) road from the South Gate of Chichester to Sidlesham crossed a small stream. The meeting-place for Box Hundred was, no doubt, somewhere in Boxgrove. The combined hundred remained attached to the honor of Arundel and passed to the Lumleys in 1566. (fn. 13)