Hemingford Grey, United Kingdom

The Domesday Book uses a number of units of measure for areas of land that are now unfamiliar terms, such as hides and ploughlands. In different parts of the country, these were terms for the area of land that a team of eight oxen could plough in a single season and are equivalent to 120 acres (49 hectares); this was the amount of land that was considered to be sufficient to support a single family. By 1086, the hide had become a unit of tax assessment rather than an actual land area; a hide was the amount of land that could be assessed as £1 for tax purposes. The survey records that there were 12.25 ploughlands at Hemingford Grey in 1086 and that there was the capacity for a further 2.75 ploughlands. In addition to the arable land, there was 90 acres (36 hectares) of meadows, two water mills and a fishery at Hemingford Grey.

The tax assessment in the Domesday Book was known as geld or danegeld and was a type of land-tax based on the hide or ploughland. It was originally a way of collecting a tribute to pay off the Danes when they attacked England, and was only levied when necessary. Following the Norman Conquest, the geld was used to raise money for the King and to pay for continental wars; by 1130, the geld was being collected annually. Having determined the value of a manor's land and other assets, a tax of so many shillings and pence per pound of value would be levied on the land holder. While this was typically two shillings in the pound the amount did vary; for example, in 1084 it was as high as six shillings in the pound. For the manors at Hemingford Grey the total tax assessed was 20 geld.

Listed as Emingeforde in the Domesday Book, the name Hemingford means "the ford of the people of Hemma or Hemmi", where Hemma is believed to be the name of a Saxon chief. The village was at different times known as East Hemingeford (11th century), Hamicheford (12th), Hemmingeforde Turbervill (13th–14th), Hemmingeforde Parva (13th–14th) and Hemingford Priors (14th–15th).

In around 1140 Payn of Hemingford began the construction of Hemingford Manor, one of the oldest inhabited buildings in England, as well as the present church. The manor was then owned by the Turberville family who for a while gave their name to the village.

In 1276 the village was given its present name by the de Grey family. The manor remained in the possession of the Greys until seized by Henry VII in the fifteenth century after George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent was unable to settle his debts. The manor was subsequently leased by the crown to a number of people, including Sir Richard Williams (the great-grandfather of Oliver Cromwell); Sir George Howard; Helena, Marchioness of Northampton; and John, Earl of Holderness. In 1721 the manor was sold by the crown, together with half the manor of Hemingford Abbots, to James Mitchell of Fowlmere.

Hemingford Grey grew considerably in the 19th century especially in the area of the London Road which is about a mile east of the village centre and nearer to St Ives. Here there has been some industrial development, a petrol station and the St Ives Motel. The village continued to grow between the wars when simple and attractive bungalows with good–sized gardens were built followed, in more recent years, by several small estate developments.