Copthorne Hundred

About

Copthorne was a hundred of Surrey, England, an area above the level of the parishes and manors, where the local wise, wealthy and powerful met periodically in Anglo-Saxon England for strategic purposes. After the Norman Conquest the lords of the manor took to annual hundred meetings and their status became eroded by royal-approved transactions of land, as meanwhile the manorial courts and moreover royal courts seized jurisdiction over the Hundred Courts.

The name Copthorne may derive from a pollarded thorn tree at the place where the hundred met. The meeting point has been suggested to be marked by an earthwork and ancient hedge at the southern end of Woodcote Park, Epsom, close to Langley Vale. The earthwork is denoted as the Nutshambles on a map of Ashtead dating from 1638.