It covered an area in the south-west of the county stretching from Salford to Studham and from Leighton Buzzard to Houghton Regis and Dunstable.

The name appears as "Maunesheved", with Thomas Camill as the bailiff.

[2] The area west of the Watling Street is recorded in the Domesday Book as the half-hundred of Stanbridge, and there is also a mention of a hundred called Odecroft which may have covered the area south of the Ouzel Brook.

By the early 14th century, these areas had effectively been incorporated into Manshead hundred.

[3] The hundred contained the following parishes:[4] Aspley Guise, Battlesden, Chalgrave, Dunstable, Eaton Bray, Eversholt, Harlington, Hockliffe, Holcot, Houghton Regis, Husborne Crawley, Leighton Buzzard, Milton Bryan, Potsgrove, Salford, Studham, Tilsworth, Tingrith, Toddington, Totternhoe, Westoning, Whipsnade, Woburn