Welwyn
Welwyn | ||
---|---|---|
Shire county | ||
Region | ||
Country | England | |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom | |
Post town | WELWYN | |
Postcode district | AL6 | |
Dialling code | 01438 | |
Police | Hertfordshire | |
Fire | Hertfordshire | |
Ambulance | East of England | |
UK Parliament | ||
Welwyn
Etymology
The name is derived from Old English welig meaning "willow", referring to the trees that nestle on the banks of the River
Through having its name derived from welig rather than sealh (the more commonly cited Old English word for willow), Welwyn is possibly cognate with Heligan in Cornwall whose name is derived from helygen, the Cornish word for willow that shares a root with welig.
The nearby modern village of Digswell (around Welwyn North railway station) was originally called 'High Welwyn' when first developed at the beginning of the 20th century.[4]
History
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2022) |
Situated in the valley of the
Iron Age remnants have not been detected until the Late Iron Age, with various local chieftain burials dated to the 1st Century BC gaining national prominence.[6]
The Belgae Celtic culture colonised much of South-Eastern England in the 1st century BC, with Welwyn in the area believed to have been settled by the Catuvellauni tribe.
Following the Roman invasion, Welwyn was settled by the
The Welwyn Roman Baths (the remains of a third-century Roman bath house) have been preserved and are open to the public. One particular excavation revealed a large Roman cemetery very close to the site of the current church, which itself is known to date back to at least Saxon times (see below). The church lies directly alongside the route of the Roman road.
The archaeological record in Welwyn is nearly continuous from the late Iron Age (Celtic) through to recorded times, lacking proof of occupation only in the early Anglo-Saxon period. It is therefore likely that Welwyn has been continuously occupied for over 2000 years.
Welwyn was at the heart of the territory of the Anglo-Saxon Tewingas tribe[7] and was the site of an early minster church.[8] In 1990, a proposal was made to rename the village as "Welwyn Minster" to shake off the unpopular "Old" name.[9]
The
A
Much later, in the 17th century, as it lies on the old
Historical descriptions
Despite this long history, at the beginning of the 20th century Welwyn was regarded as a sleepy backwater. One writer wrote that Welwyn, a small town in the Maran Valley, can show little of interest beyond many quaint cottages, and the church.[11]
In 1870–1872, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Welwyn thus:
WELWYN, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Hatfield district, Herts. The village stands on the river Maran, 1¼ mile W of the Great Northern railway, and 5 N of Hatfield; carries on shoe-making and wool-stapling; consists chiefly of two well built streets; and has a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, two hotels, a police station, a good ancient church, two dissenting chapels, a large national school, an education charity, a workhouse, and charities for the poor £26.—The parish includes Woolmer-Green hamlet, and comprises 2,987 acres. Real property, £7,044. Pop., 1,612. Houses, 320. The property is much subdivided. Danesbury and Frythe are chief residences. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £665.* Patron, All Souls College, Oxford. Dr. Young was rector, and wrote here his "Night Thoughts." A national school is at Woolmer-Green, and is used as a chapel of ease.—The sub-district contains 4 parishes, and is a poor-law union. Acres, 6,457. Pop., 2,21 1. Houses, 439.
A fuller history is given in William Page's A History of the County of Hertford in the Victoria History of the Counties of England series.[12]
Transport
Welwyn was noted for its congestion since the beginning of the 20th century, but in 1927 it got what is claimed to be the first by-pass in Britain. The A1 was upgraded to motorway standards north of Welwyn in the 1960s, and in 1973 the motorway was extended south past the village, by-passing the existing by-pass. Today the village is the point where the six-lane motorway merges into four lanes and is the site of extensive traffic jams in the evening peak.
There had been extensive plans to widen the whole road through the area to eight lanes, and to upgrade the existing junction to create a long one-way system running the length of the village. These plans were shelved, but recently plans to provide a climbing lane at least on the section north of the village have been discussed.
Buses run every 15 minutes Monday–Friday, every 20 minutes Saturday, and hourly on Sunday. Additional bi-hourly service 314 is provided by Centrebus, connecting Welwyn to Codicote and Hitchin.
The nearest railway station to Welwyn Village is Welwyn North in the nearby village of Digswell, about a mile east from the village, while Knebworth station, one stop nearer Stevenage, is easier for residents of Oaklands to access.
Trains are operated by
Education
There are two state schools in Welwyn and one independent school.
The larger state school is Welwyn St. Mary's Church of England Primary School, situated off London Road which takes children aged between 4 and 11 years of age (Reception to Year 6). Originally built in 1940 as a secondary school,[13] the school was later converted to a primary school. The second is Oaklands Primary School, which incorporates Acorns Preschool and Playgroup.
There is also Tenterfield Nursery School which is situated on London Road close to the primary school. It takes children aged 3 to 4 years of age.
Secondary state education is provided through schools in nearby towns, such as Monks Walk School and Stanborough School, in Welwyn Garden city.
There is an independent all-ages (nursery through to sixth form) coeducational school on the eastern outskirts of Welwyn called Sherrardswood School.[14]
Sports
There are a tennis club,[15] a sports and social club,[16] a bowls club, a football club,[17] and a cricket pitch in the village. These last two are part of Welwyn Garden City-based clubs.
Local points of interest
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2022) |
In the fields surrounding the nearby Danesbury House, now converted into accommodation, is a previously dilapidated and neglected former
On the outskirts of Welwyn are the remains of a 3rd-century Roman bath-house, which was once part of the Dicket Mead villa. Local archaeologist Tony Rook discovered the villa and bath-house in the 1960s and excavated them with a team of archaeologists and volunteers from Welwyn Archaeological Society. The remains of the bath-house are now preserved in a vault under the A1 motorway. The site is now run by Welwyn Hatfield Museum Service[21] and is sometimes opened to the public.
Between 1928 and 1951
Vincent van Gogh walked from London to visit his sister while she was staying in Welwyn; this is commemorated by a blue plaque on a building on Church Street.
Twinning
Welwyn is twinned with the village of Champagne-sur-Oise in the département of Val-d'Oise, just north of Paris. The connection is organised in Welwyn by the Welwyn Anglo-French Twinning Association (WAFTA). The twinning arrangement was entered into in 1973, as a result of a visit to Champagne-sur-Oise by the headmaster and pupils of St Mary's School, Welwyn, setting up a cultural association which has continued since then.
Coincidentally, Champagne-sur-Oise is only about twenty miles from the
Notable people
- Gabriel Towerson (c. 1635–1697), theologian, was Rector of Welwyn from 1662 until his death.[22]
- Edward Young (1683–1765), poet, philosopher and theologian, author of Night-Thoughts, was a later Rector of Welwyn.[23]
- William Blake (1774–1852), an economist, leased St John's Lodge, Welwyn, with a park of 130 acres, in 1819 and bought it in 1824, changing the name to Danesbury.[24][25] He was High Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1836.[26]
- William Wilshere (1806–1867), a Whig politician, lived at The Frythe, near Welwyn, and in 1846 built a Gothic revival country house.
- Sir Arthur Davidson (1856–1922), equerry, grew up in Welwyn.
- Basil Sanderson, 1st Baron Sanderson of Ayot (1894–1971) lived at Welwyn and took his title from Ayot, in the parish.
- Eileen Soper (1905–1990), illustrator, and her sister Eva Soper, also an artist, moved into Wildings, Harmer Green, Welwyn, in 1908, when it was built by their father, the artist George Soper, and lived there for the whole of their lives.[27]
- Lord Justice of Appeal, lived at Harmer Green.[28]
- Sir Martin Gilliat (1913–1993), long-serving Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, lived at the Manor House, Welwyn.[29]
- Matthew Marsh (born 1968), racing driver, is a native of Welwyn.
- Rebecca Llewellyn (born 1985), a tennis player, lives at Welwyn.
- Simon Pearce (born 1986), historian and podcaster.
- Major-General Eric Miles, British Army officer who served in both of the World wars, commanding the 56th (London) Infantry Division in the longest approach march in history.
See also
References
- ^ "Civil Parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
- ^ "Home – Welwyn Parish Council". Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1904). The place-names of Hertfordshire, Volume 2, Part 8. Printed for the East Herts Archaeological Society by Stephen Austin & Sons, Limited. p. 67.
- ^ 'River Mimram' (chapter 7) by Tony Rook (Amberley Publishing, 2014)
- ^ a b Extensive Urban Survey – Hertfordshire – Welwyn (PDF), English Heritage, p. 2
- ^ The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology, OUP
- ISBN 071904491X, retrieved 20 July 2014
- ISBN 978-1909291027, retrieved 20 July 2014
- ^ The Anglo Saxons of Welwyn — 10th Anniversary (PDF), 2010, p. 30
- ISBN 0-86023-030-9.
- ^ Tompkins, Herbert W (1922). HERTFORDSHIRE, Second Edition, Revised. Methuen & Co. p. 222.
- ^ William Page, A History of the County of Hertford, volume 3, (1912) online text at british-history.ac.uk.
- ^ "Welwyn St Mary's School Website". Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ "Sherrardswood School – Home". www.sherrardswood.co.uk. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ "Welwyn Tennis Club". Welwyn Tennis Club. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ WSSC website
- ^ "Youth – Welwyn Garden City – Welwyn Pegasus Football Club". Youth – Welwyn Garden City – Welwyn Pegasus Football Club. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ a b "3 – Some Early Pulham Gardens | The Pulham Legacy". pulham.org.uk. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011.
- ^ says, fast London locksmiths services (30 March 2011). "Home Counties". Retrieved 5 June 2019.
- ^ "Parks and Gardens - James Pulham & Son". Archived from the original on 2 August 2008. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
- ^ "Museum Service".
- Anthony à Wood, Athenae Oxonienses: An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops, &c., Volume 4 (London, 1820), p. 583
- John Mitford(ed.), The poetical works of Edward Young, Volume 1
- ^ The National Archives, Estate and family papers of the Blake family of Danesbury, Welwyn, 1776–1924.
- ISBN 978-0-9542189-9-7. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
- ^ Bulletins of State Intelligence. 1836. p. 48. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
- ^ Eileen Soper, Artist, Illustrator at hertsmemories.org.uk, accessed 10 March 2019
- ^ Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage (Kelly's Directories, 1973), p. 1238
- ^ "Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Martin Gilliat", obituary in The Times dated 29 May 1993, p. 17
External links
Media related to Welwyn at Wikimedia Commons