Langley and Swinehead was an ancient

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England. Hundreds originated in the late

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

period as a subdivision of a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

and lasted as administrative divisions until the 19th century. Langley and Swinehead was divided into two divisions — Upper and Lower — the Upper division comprised the four ancient

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es of

Bitton Bitton is a village and civil parish of South Gloucestershire in Gloucestershire, England, to the east of Bristol and on the River Boyd. The parish of Bitton had a population of 9,307, and apart from the village itself, includes Swineford, ...

Doynton Doynton is a village in South Gloucestershire, England. The population of this village taken at the 2011 census was 320. Setting Doynton is a village situated on the lower slopes of the Cotswolds, approximately two miles south-east of Puckle ...

, Frampton-Cotterell and Winterbourne and part of the parish of

Alveston Alveston is a village, civil parish and former royal manor in South Gloucestershire, England, inhabited in 2014 by about 3,000 people. The village lies south of Thornbury and north of Bristol. Alveston is twinned with Courville sur Eu ...

. The Lower division comprised the three ancient parishes of

Littleton-upon-Severn Littleton-upon-Severn is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Aust, in the South Gloucestershire district, in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England, near the mouth of the River Severn and is located to the west of ...

Olveston Olveston is a small village and larger parish in South Gloucestershire, England. The parish comprises the villages of Olveston and Tockington, and the hamlets of Old Down, Ingst and Awkley. The civil parish population at the 2011 census wa ...

and

Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...

, the remainder of Alveston and part of the parish of

Almondsbury Almondsbury () is a large village and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. It is situated on the A38 road in the Avon Green Belt north of Bristol city centre. It is adjacent to junction 16 of the M5 motorway and Almondsbury Interc ...

.The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland
1868, via GENUKI At the time of the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

Langley and Swineshead were listed as two separate hundreds; Langley also included the parish of Thornbury — later a hundred of its own — and Swineshead included both the city of

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

and what later became the Barton Regis Hundred. Langley Hundred, on the west, comprised places within seven parishes: * Alveston * Frampton Cotterell * Littleton-upon-Severn * Olveston * Rockhampton * Thornbury * Almondsbury - Gaunts Earthcott and Tockington Swineshead, on the east, comprised places within Bristol (Bristol and Blacksworth), the later Barton Regis Hundred (Barton, Clifton, Mangotsfield and Ridgeway) and four other parishes: * Bitton - Bitton, Oldland and Hanham * Winterbourne - Winterbourne, Hambrook and Sturden *

Stoke Gifford Stoke Gifford is a neighbourhood and Civil parish, parish and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in the South Gloucestershire district, in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, England. Formerly a separate ...

(later in Henbury Hundred) *

Wapley Wapley is a rural village in South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Kingswood, Thornbur ...

(later in Grumbold's Ash Hundred) Doynton was part of Pucklechurch Hundred at the time of the Domesday book. The name Langley is derived from ''lang lēah'' (long clearing), the place believed to be in Alveston parish where the hundred court met. 'Swineshead' came from ''swīn hēafod'' (pigs hill), a place near

Swineford Swineford is a hamlet in the South Gloucestershire council area, very close to the boundary with Bath and North East Somerset. It is located around 1 km south-east of Bitton, and lies on the River Avon, on which the Swineford Lock is sited ...

, Bitton parish where that hundred court met. It's unclear when the hundreds of Langley and Swineshead were combined: the hundreds were still listed separately in 1395 and the combined hundred was reported from, at the latest, 1602.

References

{{Hundreds of Gloucestershire Hundreds of Gloucestershire History of Bristol