Godley was a hundred in what is now Surrey, England. Egham, Thorpe, Chertsey and Chobham are all mentioned in the Chertsey Abbey charter of 673 AD due to a donation by Frithuwold. Chobham 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 would have settled on the more fertile alluvial soil bordering the River Thames.
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Godley appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Godelie. Godley was a hundred (these are not marked on the Surrey map, which shows only Domesday manors) an administrative area, where local leaders met about once a month.[1] It included the manors of Chobham, Egham, Thorpe, Chertsey, Pyrford and Byfleet. Pyrford is within the Godley hundred but unusually lies within the Woking parish.[2]
The hundred was probably bounded to the west by the River Blackwater and to the north by the River Thames. To the north was the Land of Sunningas; to the south Woking (hundred) and then the Land of Godhelmingas, to the west the Land of Basingas.[3][4]
In the Godley hundred, in Saxon times, the heriot, death duties, usually consisted of the tenants' best beast.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Surrey Domesday Book Archived October 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ British history
- ^ Map of area and analysis
- ^ "Chobham information". Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
- ^ "Feudal glossary". Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2007.