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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2023
Of the Bedfordshire Hundreds, those of Barford, Biggleswade, Clifton and Flitt are usually assumed to have met in that parish from which each respective Hundred took its name. For the remaining Hundreds, only in the case of JManshead has evidence been advanced to establish a site. There are good grounds for making a similar identification for Wixamtree. It is suggested that the meeting-place may have been at the centre of the Hundred, at Deadman’s Oak.
Wixamtree means Wihstan’s tree. Wixamtree Hundred is a natural division, bounded on three sides by the Ouse, the Ivel, and the Shefford brook. It contains the ancient parishes of Cardington, Cople, Willington, Blunham, Northill, Southill and Old Warden; these included the modern parishes of Eastcotts and Mogerhanger. Across the Hundred in a south-westerly direction runs a ridge of high ground; midway on this ridge, at the southern corner of Sheerhatch wood, where four ancient parishes meet, stands Deadman’s Oak. Thus the suggested site is central. It also has natural advantages : the wood provides shelter from the prevailing winds; the former 250-acre common of Beeston Leys provided space for a large gathering and for the tethering of horses.
Ease of access from the parishes is still good and was formerly better. Of the four ancient parishes adjoining Deadman’s Oak, Cople and Northill (with all its hamlets) still have direct access. From Willington the approach is either through Cople, or, more directly, by a green lane running up to and north-east of Sheerhatch wood on to the ancient common. Old Warden sends up, as it were, a finger of territory through which a green lane runs to reach the site.
For the south and west of the Hundred, for Old Warden, Southill and Cardington, the question of a route through Old Warden is important; and it is unfortunate that Old Warden was privately enclosed, and further that no other old map of the parish appears to have survived. Moreover the award for the adjoining parish, Cardington, does not give details for the south of the parish at the Old Warden border, for this part consisted of old enclosures.
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