Place:Isaled Hundred, Denbighshire, Wales

Welsh Commutes and Hundreds

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Land in medieval Wales was divided into cantrefs (Welsh: cantrefi), which were themselves divided into smaller cymydau (English: commotes or commutes). The cantref is thought to be the original unit, with the commutes being a later division. Cantrefi could vary considerably in size: most were divided into two or three commutes, but the largest, the Cantref Mawr (or "Great Cantref") in Ystrad Tywi (now in Carmarthenshire) was divided into seven commotes. To give an idea of the size of a cantref, the island of Anglesey was divided into three cantrefi: Cemais, Aberffraw and Rhosyr. A map of all the cantrefs of Wales can be found in Wikipedia.

After the acts of union of Wales with England in 1536 and 1543, the English term hundred began to replace "commute". The lists of hundreds and commutes found under Welsh counties here in WeRelate are taken from A History of Britain through Time. The commutes and hundreds in a county often have the same name but include a slightly different group of parishes. This may be due to different boundaries, or because some parishes divided into two units--perhaps because of ownership of land or the growth in an industry such as coal mining or slate quarrying.

Many of the names of cantrefs, commutes and hundreds were adopted to form the names of the later rural districts (1894-1974) and the "district municipalities" and "principal areas" created since 1974. The use of cantrefs go so far back in time that they have not been adopted into WeRelate at this time.

Parishes