GRIMSHOE HUNDRED

The parish of Feltwell is in the Hundred of Grimshoe; also spelt Grimshoo, Grimshow and, in Domesday Book, Grimshou. In his book of the Local Names of Norfolk, the Revd. G. Munford says that Grim is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning an Evil Spirit; the termination "hoe" or "how" signifies an open hilly country such as this district was before being planted up by the Forestry Commission. Mr. Munford explains that many places whose names commence with the syllable "Grim" are so called from some special features of nature or from some works which the Anglo-Saxons, being unable to account for, attributed to the Evil One. Thus the numerous mounds, earthworks and other remains found in "the then wild and dismal plains of this Hundred, as Grimes Graves and Devil's Dyke were considered to be the work of the Evil Spirit and his Agents"; so it became known as the Grimshoe Hundred.

The division of the country into Shires and Hundreds dates back to the time of Alfred the Great, A.D. 871-901 The Hundred was so called either from having one hundred free families then resident in it or from its ability to furnish one hundred able-bodied men in time of war. Norfolk is divided into 33 Hundreds, exclusive of the City of Norwich. There are 16 parishes in the Grimshoe Hundred.

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