Editing Cheshire (section)

====Hundreds====
[[File:Cheshire domesday hundreds.svg|thumb|left|Hundreds of Cheshire in Domesday Book. Areas highlighted in pink became part of [[Flintshire (historic)|Flintshire]] in Wales.]]
Cheshire in the [[Domesday Book]] (1086) is recorded as a much larger county than it is today. It included two [[hundred (division)|hundreds]], Atiscross and Exestan, that later became part of North [[Wales]]. At the time of the Domesday Book, it also included as part of Duddestan Hundred the area of land later known as [[English Maelor]] (which used to be a detached part of [[Flintshire (historic)|Flintshire]]) in Wales.<ref>{{cite book |last=Davies |first=R. |title=The Age of Conquest: Wales 1063–1415 |year=2000 }}</ref> The area between the [[River Mersey|Mersey]] and [[River Ribble|Ribble]] (referred to in the Domesday Book as "Inter Ripam et Mersam") formed part of the returns for Cheshire.<ref>Morgan (1978). pp.269c–301c,d.</ref><ref name=sylvesterp14>Sylvester (1980). p. 14.</ref> Although this has been interpreted to mean that at that time south Lancashire was part of Cheshire,<ref name=sylvesterp14/><ref>Roffe (2000)</ref> more exhaustive research indicates that the boundary between Cheshire and what was to become Lancashire remained the [[River Mersey]].<ref>Harris and Thacker (1987) write on page 252: {{blockquote|Certainly there were links between Cheshire and south Lancashire before 1000, when [[Wulfric Spot]] held lands in both territories. Wulfric's estates remained grouped together after his death when they were left to his brother Aelfhelm, and indeed there still seems to have been some kind of connexion in 1086, when south Lancashire was surveyed together with Cheshire by the Domesday commissioners. Nevertheless, the two territories do seem to have been distinguished from one another in some way and it is not certain that the shire-moot and the reeves referred to in the south Lancashire section of Domesday were the Cheshire ones.}}</ref><ref>Phillips and Phillips (2002); pp. 26–31.</ref><ref>Crosby, A. (1996) writes on page 31: {{blockquote|The Domesday Survey (1086) included south Lancashire with Cheshire for convenience, but the Mersey, the name of which means 'boundary river' is known to have divided the kingdoms of Northumbria and Mercia and there is no doubt that this was the real boundary.}}</ref> With minor variations in spelling across sources, the complete list of [[hundreds of Cheshire]] at this time are: Atiscross, Bochelau, Chester, Dudestan, Exestan, Hamestan, Middlewich, Riseton, Roelau, Tunendune, Warmundestrou and Wilaveston.<ref>Harris, B. E., and Thacker, A. T. (1987); pages 340–341.</ref>