Conference Presentations by ross dunworth
Winchester University RKE Research Symposium, 2014
This paper will examine the tenurial history of the estate of Frustfield (modern day Whiteparish)... more This paper will examine the tenurial history of the estate of Frustfield (modern day Whiteparish) in South East Wiltshire in the tenth and eleventh centuries , to consider how a relatively small landholding in a y woodland territory was deemed to be important enough to require written evidence of its ownership through the issuing of two tenth century charters. The study has been set in the context of the estates bounds as written down in the old English boundary clauses attached to the charters, to enable the land so granted to be viewed in a wider territorial perspective. This will also help in determining the possible value or importance of the estate to the beneficiaries of the two charters, Ealdorman Wulfgar (d.c949?), Abbess Wulfthryth (d. c1000) and Wilton Abbey.
Papers by ross dunworth
MA Thesis , University of Winchester , 2013
From Folkland to Hundred? The development of later Anglo-Saxon territorial organisation along th... more From Folkland to Hundred? The development of later Anglo-Saxon territorial organisation along the Hampshire/Wiltshire border c. 500-1086
The origins of the principal administrative and judicial divisions of early medieval England, the hundreds, are obscure. However, in a number of southern counties there appears to be a correlation between hundredal boundaries, large estates and minster parochiae, suggesting a shared ancestry from at least the middle Saxon period. The possibility of a longer evolutionary development for the hundred relating in part to earlier “folk lands” or topographically coherent, river valley based settlement areas is generally accepted, rather than the implementation of an innovative , local administration from the late tenth century onwards. The first direct reference to Hundreds in the historical record dates from the tenth century when a legal tract known as the Hundred Ordinance was compiled. This document appears to describe a well-established administrative system whereby legal, judicial, financial and social obligations had been devolved to a discrete local territorial level. This study will attempt to trace the territorial origins of two neighbouring Anglo-Saxon hundreds along the Hampshire/Wiltshire border to determine whether they were either a product of later Anglo-Saxon administrative ingenuity or evolved from fifth and sixth century topographical based land units.
Uploads
Conference Presentations by ross dunworth
Papers by ross dunworth
The origins of the principal administrative and judicial divisions of early medieval England, the hundreds, are obscure. However, in a number of southern counties there appears to be a correlation between hundredal boundaries, large estates and minster parochiae, suggesting a shared ancestry from at least the middle Saxon period. The possibility of a longer evolutionary development for the hundred relating in part to earlier “folk lands” or topographically coherent, river valley based settlement areas is generally accepted, rather than the implementation of an innovative , local administration from the late tenth century onwards. The first direct reference to Hundreds in the historical record dates from the tenth century when a legal tract known as the Hundred Ordinance was compiled. This document appears to describe a well-established administrative system whereby legal, judicial, financial and social obligations had been devolved to a discrete local territorial level. This study will attempt to trace the territorial origins of two neighbouring Anglo-Saxon hundreds along the Hampshire/Wiltshire border to determine whether they were either a product of later Anglo-Saxon administrative ingenuity or evolved from fifth and sixth century topographical based land units.
The origins of the principal administrative and judicial divisions of early medieval England, the hundreds, are obscure. However, in a number of southern counties there appears to be a correlation between hundredal boundaries, large estates and minster parochiae, suggesting a shared ancestry from at least the middle Saxon period. The possibility of a longer evolutionary development for the hundred relating in part to earlier “folk lands” or topographically coherent, river valley based settlement areas is generally accepted, rather than the implementation of an innovative , local administration from the late tenth century onwards. The first direct reference to Hundreds in the historical record dates from the tenth century when a legal tract known as the Hundred Ordinance was compiled. This document appears to describe a well-established administrative system whereby legal, judicial, financial and social obligations had been devolved to a discrete local territorial level. This study will attempt to trace the territorial origins of two neighbouring Anglo-Saxon hundreds along the Hampshire/Wiltshire border to determine whether they were either a product of later Anglo-Saxon administrative ingenuity or evolved from fifth and sixth century topographical based land units.