Cosford was a hundred of Suffolk, consisting of 30,712 acres (124.29 km2).[1]

Cosford Hundred

The hundred consisted of Hadleigh, the only town of any size, and seventeen other parishes in western Suffolk. The area is undulating and agriculturally-fertile with clay soil, watered by the River Brett and its tributary streams. It is about twelve miles (19 km) in length from north to south and around five wide, and is bounded by the Hundreds of Samford, Babergh, Thedwestry, Stow and Bosmere and Claydon.

Suffolk hundreds
Suffolk hundreds

Cosford was in Coxford Union in the Liberty of St Edmund and in the Deanery and Archdeaconry of Sudbury. The area was until the nineteenth century part of the diocese of Norwich until it was moved to that of Ely. Hadleigh itself however is a peculiar of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Listed as Cursforde in the Domesday Book and subsequently known for a period as Corsford or Corsforth, the name Cosford means "ford of the river Cors or Corsa".[2]

Parishes

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Cosford Hundred consisted of the following 17 parishes:[1][3]

Parish Area (acres)
Aldham 1715
Bildeston 1240
Brettenham 1550
Chelsworth 860
Elmsett 1974
Hadleigh 4288
Hadleigh Hamlet 610
Hitcham 4056
Kersey 1510
Kettlebaston 1006
Layham 2489
Lindsey 1246
Naughton 854
Nedging 810
Semer 1206
Thorpe Morieux 2428
Wattisham 1299
Whatfield 1571

Hadleigh hamlet is a separate township and part of Boxford parish in Babergh hundred.

References

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  1. ^ a b William White (1844). History, gazetteer, and directory of Suffolk. p. 283.
  2. ^ Walter Skeat (1913). The Place-names of Suffolk.
  3. ^ 1841 Census

52°06′N 0°54′E / 52.1°N 0.9°E / 52.1; 0.9