Purlieu

{{Short description|Outlying parts of a place or district}}

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Purlieu is a term used for the outlying parts of a place or district. It was a term of the old Forest law, and meant, as defined by John Manwood, Treatise of the Lawes of the Forest (1598, 4th ed. 1717),{{blockquote|a certain territory of ground adjoining unto the forest [which] was once forest-land and afterwards disafforested by the perambulations made for the severing of the new forests from the old}}

The owner of freelands in the purlieu to the yearly value of forty shillings was known as a purlieu-man or purley-man. The benefits of disafforestation accrued only to the owner of the lands. There seems no doubt that purlieu or purley represents the Anglo-French pourallé lieu (old French {{lang|fro|pouraler}}, {{lang|fro|puraler}}, to go through Latin {{lang|la|perambulare}}), a legal term meaning properly a perambulation to determine the boundaries of a manor, parish, or similar region.

The word survives in placenames. Examples include Dibden Purlieu in Hampshire, on the border of the New Forest, and Bedford Purlieus, once part of Rockingham Forest; also as Purley, in London, and Purley on Thames, in Berkshire. It also survives in the surname, Purley.