Historic Hundreds Boundaries of Wales

A hundred is a regional administrative division, often considered to be a sub-division of a County and are Anglo-Saxon in origin. As with the counties, they were introduced into Wales through the Laws in Wales Act (1535) and the Laws in Wales Act (1542). Prior to this a similar administrative system, the 'Cantref' had existed in Wales and some of the hundreds created after 1535 were based on the older Cantref boundaries. The hundred administrative unit was used throughout the Middle Ages and early modern period and was still in use for census purposes as late as 1841. By the end of the nineteenth century, the hundreds began to fall out of use and were ultimately replaced by local government districts. The mapping of historical boundaries requires many sources to be consulted. The most important has been the large scale first edition Ordnance Survey County Series mapping. The first edition six-inch to the Mile (1:10,560) scale mapping has been digitised by the National Library of Scotland (NLS) and this has provided a reliable source to map the boundaries from. As the project progresses, larger-scale sources such as the 25-inch (1:2,500) scale Ordnance Survey mapping will be used to refine the boundaries. Earlier cartographic sources will also be consulted such as Enclosure and Estate mapping and the Welsh Tithe Maps digitised by the National Library of Wales. All of the digital boundary datasets have been made available for public use under the Open Government Licence for public sector information. This means that you are free to copy, publish, distribute and adapt the information. We ask that when using this information that you acknowledge where this information has come from using the following accreditation: ‘© Crown Copyright, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales available under Open Government License 3.0’ Or ‘© Crown Copyright, RCAHMW available under Open Government License 3.0’