Godley was a hundred

Hundred (division)

A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, Denmark, South Australia, some parts of the United States, Germany , Sweden, Finland and Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions...

 in what is now Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Egham

Egham

Egham is a wealthy suburb in the Runnymede borough of Surrey, in the south-east of England. It is part of the London commuter belt and Greater London Urban Area, and about south-west of central London on the River Thames and near junction 13 of the M25 motorway.-Demographics:Egham town has a...

, Thorpe

Thorpe, Surrey

Thorpe is a village in Surrey, England, located between Egham and Chertsey. It lies just inside the circle of the western part of the M25, near the M3. Neighbouring villages include Virginia Water, Wentworth, Laleham and Lyne...

, Chertsey

Chertsey

Chertsey is a town in Surrey, England, on the River Thames and its tributary rivers such as the River Bourne. It can be accessed by road from junction 11 of the M25 London orbital motorway. It shares borders with Staines, Laleham, Shepperton, Addlestone, Woking, Thorpe and Egham...

 and Chobham

Chobham, Surrey

Chobham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, about 15 minutes drive from the London railway line stations at Woking to the south and Sunningdale to the north...

 are all mentioned in the Chertsey Abbey

Chertsey Abbey

Chertsey Abbey, dedicated to St Peter, was a Benedictine monastery located at Chertsey in the English county of Surrey.It was founded by Saint Erkenwald, later Bishop of London, in 666 AD and he became the first abbot. In the 9th century it was sacked by the Danes and refounded from Abingdon Abbey...

 charter of 673AD due to a donation by Frithuwold

Frithuwold

Frithuwold may refer to:*Frithuwold of Surrey, 7th century King of Surrey*Frithuwald of Bernicia, 6th century King of Bernicia* Frithuwald, Bishop of Whithorn, 735–763x764...

. Chobham

Chobham, Surrey

Chobham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, about 15 minutes drive from the London railway line stations at Woking to the south and Sunningdale to the north...

 manor needed to be large to have a reasonable economic importance as it covered very poor quality heathland. Most of the population of the hundred

Hundred (division)

A hundred is a geographic division formerly used in England, Wales, Denmark, South Australia, some parts of the United States, Germany , Sweden, Finland and Norway, which historically was used to divide a larger region into smaller administrative divisions...

 would have settled on the more fertile alluvial soil bordering the Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

.

Godley appears in Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 as Godelie. Godley was a hundred (these are not marked on the Surrey map, which shows only Domesday manor

Manorialism

Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...

s) an administrative area, where local leaders met about once a month. It included the manors of Chobham

Chobham, Surrey

Chobham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, about 15 minutes drive from the London railway line stations at Woking to the south and Sunningdale to the north...

, Egham

Egham

Egham is a wealthy suburb in the Runnymede borough of Surrey, in the south-east of England. It is part of the London commuter belt and Greater London Urban Area, and about south-west of central London on the River Thames and near junction 13 of the M25 motorway.-Demographics:Egham town has a...

, Thorpe

Thorpe, Surrey

Thorpe is a village in Surrey, England, located between Egham and Chertsey. It lies just inside the circle of the western part of the M25, near the M3. Neighbouring villages include Virginia Water, Wentworth, Laleham and Lyne...

, Chertsey

Chertsey

Chertsey is a town in Surrey, England, on the River Thames and its tributary rivers such as the River Bourne. It can be accessed by road from junction 11 of the M25 London orbital motorway. It shares borders with Staines, Laleham, Shepperton, Addlestone, Woking, Thorpe and Egham...

, Pyrford

Pyrford

Pyrford is an English village that for centuries had historical links with the monastery of Westminster, in whose possession it remained between the Norman Conquest and the Dissolution of the Monasteries nearly five hundred years later. It is thirty miles by road from central London and situated...

 and Byfleet

Byfleet

Byfleet is an inland island village forming a suburb of Woking in Surrey, England. It is in the east of the borough between the River Wey and the River Mole, and is within the M25 motorway....

. Pyrford

Pyrford

Pyrford is an English village that for centuries had historical links with the monastery of Westminster, in whose possession it remained between the Norman Conquest and the Dissolution of the Monasteries nearly five hundred years later. It is thirty miles by road from central London and situated...

 is within the Godley hundred but unusually lies within the Woking

Woking

Woking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, UK. It is part of the Greater London Urban Area and the London commuter belt, with frequent trains and a journey time of 24 minutes to Waterloo station....

 parish.

The hundred was probably bounded to the west by the River Blackwater

River Blackwater (River Loddon)

The River Blackwater is a tributary of the River Loddon in England and, indirectly, of the River Thames. It rises at Rowhill on the outskirts of Aldershot between Aldershot in Hampshire and Farnham in Surrey and runs northwards to join the Loddon near the village of Swallowfield in Berkshire...

 and to the west by the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

. To the north was the Land of Sunningas; to the south Woking (hundred)

Woking (hundred)

Woking was a hundred in what is now Surrey, England. It includes the town of Woking and the borough of Woking.The Hundred includes the parishes of Ash, East Clandon, West Clandon, East Horsley, West Horsley, Merrow, Ockham, Pirbright, Send and Ripley, Stoke Juxta Guildford, Wanborough, Windlesham,...

 and then the Land of Godhelmingas, to the west the Land of Basingas.

In the Godley hundred, in Saxon times, the heriot

Heriot

Heriot, from Old English heregeat , was originally a death-duty in late Anglo-Saxon England, which required that at death, a nobleman provided to his king a given set of military equipment, often including horses, swords, shields, spears and helmets...

, death duties, usually consisted of the tenants' best beast.

See also

Medieval Surrey

Surrey hundreds