The Hundred Stone

Guy Burgess

‘Hundredstone’ is a place name familiar to the citizens of Yeovil, but it is less well known that the name relates to a ceremonial Stone dating back at least to Saxon times (410-1066 AD) that is still standing in a small park at the highest part of the town, overlooking the Somerset landscape in all directions. The ‘Hundred’ was a Saxon administrative division of the County. Each Hundred had a 'fyrd' or militia, which acted as the local defence force, and a ‘moot’ or court to enforce its rules. The meeting place of the moot was usually named after the main town, but the Hundred to which Yeovil belonged took its name from the Stone around which the moot was held – known variously as the ‘Hundred of Stone’, the ‘Stone Hundred’ and more recently the ‘Hundred Stone’. John Speede’s Somerset map of 1610 shows the ‘Stone Hundred’, with its parishes of Lymmyngton (Limington), Ashington, Muttford (Mudford), Chiltern Dummer (Chilthorne Domer), Thorne, Euyll (Yeovil), Preston (Preston Plucknett), and Brimpton (Brympton).

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