Barstable Hundred

Barstable is bordered on the east by Rochford hundred; on the north by Chelmsford hundred; on the north-west by the Ongar hundred; on the west by Chafford hundred (with the boundary in part following the Mardyke) and on the south by the river Thames. The parish boundary between Grays Thurrock and Little Thurrock is also the hundred boundary between Barstable and Chafford. The interlocking boundary between these parishes suggests the existence of a common pasture originally shared, prior to the establishment of the hundred boundary. ==Name==

The name of the hundred was normally that of its meeting place. The second element is a post or pillar. The post would have marked the meeting place for the hundred. ==Meeting point==

During the Saxon period, the men of the hundred met to discuss local issues and to conduct judicial trials. The moot site for the Barstable hundred was said to be close to the former Barstable Hall. Reaney says, "The old hall was near the junction of the boundaries of the parishes of Laindon, Corringham, Vange and Basildon". Still, there is no common boundary involving Corringham, Laindon and Vange. A Laindon court roll, dated 1573, mentions a motehill. According to Godman, "the manor-house had disappeared before Morant's time, a farmhouse being built in a lower situation. This has been in its turn deserted, and the buildings now remaining are fragmentary." Anderson says "the original hall stood further south", "at the highest point in the parish". According to another source, this was destroyed by an explosion in 1834, and may now be under the railway line. The original location would have been close to the geographic centre of the hundred. The modern district of Barstable in Basildon new town is largely in the traditional parish of Vange. However, David Roffe notes that the Hundred Rolls for the Barstable hundred were the verdicts of a hundred court held at Horndon-on-the-Hill. ==Parishes==

Canvey Island, which was also in the Barstable hundred, was divided among a number of nearby parishes. Wheatley was recorded in Barstable hundred on Domesday, but later records put it in the Rochford hundred. ==Notes==