Hidden East Anglia:

Landscape Legends of Norfolk & Suffolk

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From at least the 10th century - and perhaps even earlier - Norfolk and Suffolk were divided into Hundreds, areas of land possibly based on a hundred 'hides' or family holdings. In medieval times, the Hundred was the basis of all public administration, and its courts, known as 'moots' or 'things', and which were second only to the county, were often held at local landmarks such as fords, lakes, prominent boulders and trees - or in these cases, at artificial mounds or earthworks:

Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk: The Court for the Hundred of Thingoe met at a mound known as the Thing-Howe, Dinghowe, Thinghill or Thingo on Shirehouse Heath, just outside Bury's Northgate, where Northgate Avenue is today. The Thinghowe (TL849655) was also the meeting place for the Liberty of St.Edmunds, a group of eight ½ Hundreds under the jurisdiction of the abbot of St. Edmund's. 

The hill was obtained by the local convent in the early 11th century, and the Court transferred to a tumulus called Catteshill (TL884653, now Catteshall) at Great Barton, where the Tyburn Barn now stands. In 1305 it moved again to a tumulus called Henhowe (TL845657), one of four mounds on the boundary of Bury, on Shire-house Heath, where the Black Cross also stood. The Shire Hall itself stood on Henhowe till about 1573, to be superseded by Henhowe Mill. This mound too has gone.

After the Court was moved from the Thinghowe, the hill was a place of execution till the 18th century. Forty witches were hanged there during Matthew Hopkins' persecutions in 1644, and Lowestoft's two famous witches in 1662. The last execution was on April 4th 1766, when Elizabeth Burroughs was hanged for the 'wilful murder' of Mary Booty, and the site became known locally as Betty Burroughs' Hill.

Flitcham-with-Appleton, Norfolk: Freebridge-Lynn Hundred Court met at a lost mound surrounded by a square ditch called Flitcham Burgh by the roadside a little north of Flitcham. Beloe in 1893 said it was in the wooded and ditched Paston's Clump, at the crossroads at TF718282. In the 3rd year of Elizabeth 1st, the court met under an oak at Gaywood near King's Lynn, and after that, till about 1710, at the Fitton Oak at Wiggenhall St. Germans.

Kimberley, Norfolk: The moot of Forehoe Hundred was held at the Four Hills barrows, within a wood near the hamlet of Carleton Forehoe. Two of the mounds survive (TG080054).

Long Melford, Suffolk: The Court for Babergh Hundred met at a mound on Babergh Heath near Long Melford, but this was removed during the making of an airfield.

Longham, Norfolk: Launditch Hundred met at the earthen dyke called Launditch or Devil's Dyke (TF923170 area), where a Roman road and the parish boundary between Longham and Beeston crossed it.

Stoke Holy Cross, Norfolk: A burial mound known as Modberge (from Old English gemot-beorg, 'hill of assembly') stood somewhere in this parish, and was once the moot hill for Henstead Hundred.

Stradsett, Norfolk: Still surviving is The Mount, a Bronze Age bowl barrow at TF671063, which was the moot place for Clacklose Hundred.

Swaffham, Norfolk: The assembly for Greenhoe Hundred was held at the vanished tumuli called the Green Hills just south of Swaffham.

Swardeston, Norfolk: The moot for Humbleyard Hundred was convened at a rectangular earthwork enclosure that used to exist at TG212021.

Thurston, Suffolk: Thedwastre hundred is thought to have met at the top of Thedwastre Hill (TL921649) in Thurston - possibly under a specific oak tree, as the name translates as 'Theodward's tree', an idea which the village sign commemorates. A mound outside the village at TL911647 has also been suggested as the moot site, but this is now reckoned to be a more modern object.

Weeting, Norfolk: At the southern edge of the clearing in which the hollows of Grime's Graves can be seen is an artificial mound (possibly a spoil heap from the mines) known as Grimshoe (TL819898), where the assembly for Grimshoe Hundred was probably convened.