Totmonslow
| Totmonslow | |
|---|---|
| History | |
| • Origin | Anglo-Saxon period |
| • Created | 10th century |
| • Abolished | 1894 (obsolete) |
| • Succeeded by | various |
| Status | obsolete area |
| Government | Hundred |
| Subdivisions | |
| • Type | Parishes (see text) |
| • Units | Parishes |
Totmonslow is a hundred in the county of Staffordshire, England. The hundred is located in the north-east of Staffordshire, named after the hamlet of the same name, which is ½ mile east of Draycott in the Moors. The hamlet was anciently the seat of the hundred court.
The name of the place derives from Old English Tatmonn, a personal name and hlaw meaning 'hill' or 'mound'. Other examples of this personal name are recorded from the 10th century onwards (e.g. Roberto Tateman 1190–200). A large number of Hundred names refer to hills or mounds. Some of these at least are very conspicuous hills, which afford a commanding view of the countryside for miles around. It seems likely that such sites were chosen as being remote, and where interference was most easily avoided.
The origin of the hundred dates from the division of his kingdom by King Alfred the Great into counties, hundreds and tithings. From the beginning, Staffordshire was divided into the hundreds of Totmonslow, Pirehill, Offlow, Cuttleston and Seisdon.
Totmonslow is one of the largest of the 5 hundreds of Staffordshire, having an area of 169,788 acres (265 sq.miles) and the population in 1851 was 50,050. The hundred was divided into two divisions Totmanslow North and Totmanslow South by the Justices of the Peace, which an area of 100,234 and 69,554 acres respectively. Each had its own constable and Petty Sessions. The Petty Sessions for the South division were held at Ellastone.
The importance of the hundreds declined from the 17th century, and most of their functions were extinguished with the establishment of county courts in 1867. In 1894 the Hundred was made obsolete with the establishment of Urban Districts and Rural Districts in Staffordshire.
Totmonslow, or Totmanslow, is the north-eastern Hundred of Staffordshire, and contains that mountainous region called the Moorlands, which adjoins and partakes of the general character of the Derbyshire Peak, abounding in lime and formerly coal. This bleak and alpine district exhibits many of the wildest and most stupendous features of nature, as well as some of her more chaste and fertile beauties, the latter of which are confined chiefly to the narrow and picturesque vales of the rivers Dove, Manyfold, Hamps, Tean, Blythe, Dane, and Churnet, which have their principal sources in this Hundred, and here receive many small but rapid streams from the high, peaty moorlands and rocky mountains which rise in picturesque disorder, and shut in the fertile pastures of the glens and valleys.
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