Kings Langley | |
---|---|
![]() Kings Langley High Street, looking north. | |
Location within Hertfordshire | |
Population | 5,072 (Census 2001) 5,214 (Census 2011) [1] |
OS grid reference | TL067030 |
District | |
Shire county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | KINGS LANGLEY |
Postcode district | WD4 |
Dialling code | 01923 |
Police | Hertfordshire |
Fire | Hertfordshire |
Ambulance | East of England |
UK Parliament | |
Kings Langley is a village, former manor and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, 21 miles (34 kilometres) north-west of Westminster in the historic centre of London and to the south of the Chiltern Hills. It now forms part of the London commuter belt. The village is divided between two local government districts by the River Gade with the larger western portion in the Borough of Dacorum and smaller part, to the east of the river, in Three Rivers District. It was the location of Kings Langley Palace and the associated King's Langley Priory, of which few traces survive.
It is 2 mi (3 km) situated south of Hemel Hempstead and 2 mi (3 km) north of Watford.
The earliest mention in surviving documents of the manor of Langalega is in a Saxon charter dated circa 1050. It appears as Langelai in the Domesday Book of 1086, and is recorded as Langel' Regis ("Langley of the King") in 1254. The name means "long wood or clearing".
A Roman villa has been excavated just south of the village. [2]
The manor was probably a possession of the Abbey of St. Albans, the records of which have been lost. Following the Norman Conquest of 1066 the manor was one of hundreds given to Robert, Count of Mortain, uterine half-brother of King William the Conqueror. His tenant was a certain Ralf. The present village developed as a linear village along the old road from London to Berkhamsted and beyond to the Midlands. [3] In the Domesday Book of 1086, Langley was in the hundred of Danish. [4] By 1346 the place was known as Kyngeslangley and by 1428 as Lengele Regis. [5]
In about 1276 the manor was purchased by Queen Eleanor of Castile [6] (1241–1290), wife of King Edward I, and Kings Langley Palace was built on the hill to the west of the village with a deer park extending to the south. [7] King's Langley Priory, of the Dominican Order, of which remains survive, [3] was founded next to the palace. The palace and the grand priory church fell into disrepair at the Dissolution of the Monasteries and little remains above ground level. [7]
The Church of All Saints was built during the 14th century on the site of an earlier church.
It was the birth-place of Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1341–1402), 4th surviving son of King Edward III (grandson of Edward I), whose tomb survives in All Saints Church. [3] [8] The body of King Richard II, eldest grandson and successor of King Edward III, was buried here after his probable murder at Pontefract Castle in 1400. It was later removed to Westminster Abbey, next to the Palace of Westminster.
The 18th century Sparrows Herne turnpike road (later the A41 trunk road) traversed the Chilterns via the valley of the River Gade and ran down the village high street. The 16th century Saracen's Head public house is a coaching inn which flourished in this period.
The Grand Union Canal dating from 1797, and the 1838, London and Birmingham Railway which later became the West Coast Main Line, (the main railway line from London to the north west) pass just east of the village at Kings Langley railway station. There are many businesses located near the station in Home Park Industrial Estate which is also the site of the Construction and Engineering Centre of West Herts College. [8]
20th century housing developments have led to the village spreading out on either side of the main road. The A41 has now been diverted west of the village leaving the high street to local traffic for the first time in centuries.
During the Second World War, the village was home to the secret headquarters in Britain of the Polish Underground army based at Barnes Lodge just off the Hempstead Road near Rucklers Lane. [9]
Kings Langley was the site of the factory making Ovaltine chocolate drink; the listed factory facade, designed c.1923 by James Albert Bowden is now all that is left and still stands alongside the railway line among a new housing development. The Ovaltine factory itself has been converted into a series of flats and duplexes. [10]
The former Ovaltine Egg Farm was converted into energy-efficient offices which house Renewable Energy Systems. The complex incorporates a highly visible 225 kW Vestas V29 [11] wind turbine alongside the M25.
Kings Langley School is the local comprehensive school, situated on Love Lane to the west of the village.
Kings Langley was also the site of a Waldorf School, the Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley which closed in 2019. This was built on the grounds of the old palace, of which only a small basement part of a pillar remains to be seen. There was a small display cabinet of finds from the palace period in the school entrance foyer. [8]
The village became twinned with Achiet-le-Grand in France in November 2009, in honour of Christopher Cox from the village who won a Victoria Cross in fighting near Achiet-le-Grand in the First World War. [12]
The M25, the London orbital motorway, passes just south of the village on an imposing viaduct across the River Gade valley. To the north of junction 20 with the A41, a dual-carriageway bypasses Kings Langley and continues to the south of Tring where it flows into the original motorway-standard by-pass. The old route through Kings Langley is now classified the A4251.
Just to the north of Kings Langley is a small village called Rucklers Lane, named after the road it is built on. The origin of the settlement in the early 20th century was the construction of a number of mock tudor houses for the workers on the nearby Shendish Manor estate. A community hall was also built for the workers in 1909 as a memorial to Arthur Longman, the owner of the estate; it was originally intended as a chapel of ease to avoid the long walk to the parish church. [13] Further west along the lane is Phasels Wood Scout Camp and Activity Centre which opened in 1937. [14]
Kings Langley FC, as of 2023, currently play in the Premier (Central) Division of the Southern Football League.
Kings Langley CC currently play in Divisions 2B, 8B and 11E of the Saracens Hertfordshire Cricket League.
Kings Langley Bowls Club is situated in Green Park at the end of the Nap car park. It is a popular lawn bowls club with club and district competitions for bowlers of all abilities. It includes a club house with licensed bar and good social programs.
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See full reference details below.
Hertfordshire is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For government statistical purposes, it forms part of the East of England region.
Hemel Hempstead is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is 24 miles (39 km) northwest of London, and is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Apsley was a 19th-century mill village in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is a historic industrial site situated in a valley of the Chiltern Hills. It is positioned below the confluence of two permanent rivers, the Gade and Bulbourne. In an area of little surface water this was an obvious site for the location of water mills serving local agriculture and from the early 19th century became an important centre for papermaking. Today it is a suburb of the larger town of Hemel Hempstead.
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 mi (24 km) northwest of Central London, on the River Colne.
Ovaltine is a brand of milk flavoring product made with malt extract, sugar, and whey. Some flavors also have cocoa. Ovaltine, a registered trademark of Associated British Foods, is made by Wander AG, a subsidiary of Twinings, which acquired the brand from Novartis in 2002, except in the United States, where Nestlé acquired the rights separately from Novartis in the late 2000s.
The Borough of Dacorum is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England that includes the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and Kings Langley. The district, which was formed in 1974, had a population of 137,799 in 2001. Its name was taken from the old hundred of Dacorum which covered approximately the same area. It is the westernmost of Hertfordshire's districts, being bordered to the west by the Chiltern and Aylesbury Vale districts of Buckinghamshire.
Bovingdon is a village in Hertfordshire, England, 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Hemel Hempstead, and it is a civil parish within the local authority area of Dacorum. It forms the largest part of the ward of Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield, which had a population of 4,600 at the 2001 census, increasing to 9,000 at the 2011 Census.
Redbourn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, lying on Watling Street, three miles (4.8 km) from Harpenden, four miles (6.4 km) from St Albans and five miles (8.0 km) from Hemel Hempstead. The civil parish had a population of 5,113 according to the 2011 Census.
Nash Mills is a civil parish within Hemel Hempstead and Dacorum Borough Council on the northern side of the Grand Union Canal, formerly the River Gade, and in the southernmost corner of Hemel Hempstead. There is evidence of a mill in this location since the 11th century and the row of 16th century mill cottages still remain. John Dickinson established a number of papermaking mills in the area in the 19th century.
Private Christopher Augustus Cox VC, was a British Army soldier and an English recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC) the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Abbots Langley is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. It is an old settlement and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Economically the village is closely linked to Watford and was formerly part of the Watford Rural District. Since 1974 it has been included in the Three Rivers district.
Chipperfield is a village and civil parish in the Dacorum district of Hertfordshire, England, approximately five miles southwest of Hemel Hempstead and five miles north of Watford. It stands on a chalk plateau at the edge of the Chiltern Hills, between 130 and 160 metres above sea level.
Achiet-le-Grand is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France.
This article gives brief information on schools that cater for pupils up to the age of 11 in the Dacorum district of Hertfordshire, England. Most are county maintained primary schools, sometimes known as "junior mixed infant" (JMI). A small number are voluntary aided church schools or independent (fee-paying). The Local Education Authority is Hertfordshire County Council.
Gaddesden Place, near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, England, was designed by architect James Wyatt and built between 1768 and 1773, and was the home of the Hertfordshire Halsey family.
Potten End is a village in west Hertfordshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, two miles (3.2 km) east-north-east of Berkhamsted, three miles (4.8 km) north west of Hemel Hempstead and two miles south east of the National Trust estate of Ashridge. Nearby villages include Nettleden, Great Gaddesden and the hamlet of Frithsden. The village is part of the parish of Nettleden with Potten End within the borough of Dacorum.
Kings Langley Palace was a 13th-century Royal Palace which was located to the west of the Hertfordshire village of Kings Langley in England. During the Middle Ages, the palace served as a residence of the Plantagenet kings of England. It fell into disuse sometime during the 16th century and became a ruin. Today, nothing remains of the building except for some archaeological remains. The site is a scheduled ancient monument.
Beechwood Park was a mansion, near Markyate, Hertfordshire, England. It now houses Beechwood Park School.
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