Chipperfield is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in the

Dacorum 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 ...

district of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) 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 govern ...

, England, approximately five miles southwest of

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a ne ...

and five miles north of

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

. It stands on a chalk plateau at the edge of the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. ...

, between 130 and 160 metres above sea level. The

village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...

is at the centre of Chipperfield on the edge of the 117

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

Chipperfield Common. The rural parish includes the hamlet of Tower Hill.

History

Prehistoric activity in the area is testified by the presence of two

tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones buil ...

on the common. Besides being burial mounds these may have designated the boundary of lands worked by

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

communities in the Gade and

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

valleys. For centuries Chipperfield was an outlying settlement of

Kings Langley Kings Langley is a village, former Manorialism, manor and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north-west of Westminster in the historic centre of London and to the south of the Chiltern Hills. It now forms part o ...

consisting only of scattered houses. The first documentary evidence of the name is found in 1316, when Edward II bequeathed 'the Manor House of Langley the closes adjoining together with the vesture of Chepervillewode for Fewel and other Necessaries' to the Dominican Black Friars. The name is probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon ''ceapere'' meaning a trader together with ''feld'' meaning field. This suggests that there was some form of market or trading of goods here in early times. The Manor House, on the east side of the common, is a late medieval hall house but was extensively rebuilt by Thomas Gulston, before 1591. It is a Grade II* listed building. By the 1830s Chipperfield was large enough to warrant the building of both

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

and

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

churches and became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1848. For a number of years the Lords of the Manor were the Blackwell family who were benefactors to the village. Two of the family's sons were killed during World War One. Second Lieutenant Charles Blackwell (4th battalion,

Royal Fusiliers The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881. The regiment served in many wars ...

) was wounded at the

Second Battle of Ypres During the First World War, the Second Battle of Ypres was fought from for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the pre ...

and died in France in July 1915. Lieutenant William Gordon Blackwell (8th battalion, Royal Fusiliers), the younger of the two brothers, was killed in action during the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

on 5 October 1916. As a memorial the Blackwell family gave the village the village club, which remained a club until recently. It has now been renamed Blackwells and is both a bar and cafe open to the public next to the common. The names of 38 local men who died in World War One are inscribed on the War Memorial on the village green and repeated on a memorial plaque inside the church. An additional name appears on a war grave in the churchyard. There are also the names of 10 men who died in World War Two. In 1936 Chipperfield Common was gifted to the local authority to be maintained in consultation with the people of Chipperfield. Since the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the village has dramatically expanded with housing estates built during the 1940s and an extensive council estate to the east of Croft Lane built in the 1960s. In 1963 Chipperfield was split off from Kings Langley and Chipperfield Parish Council was created.Village History
At Chipperfield Village website. accessed December 2013 In 1959 the actor and comedian

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...

purchased the Manor House on the east side of the common. He lived there until 1962 attracting many famous stars and film moguls to visit him in the village. The former U.S. President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

can trace his family roots to John Carter of Jeffery's Farm, situated to the south east of the village.

Description

Chipperfield, The Windmill Public House - geograph

Perhaps the most significant feature is the common, comprising 47.5 ha (117 acres) of secondary growth woodland to the south of the village. The common is criss-crossed by way-marked paths and contains eight veteran Spanish sweet chestnut trees (

Castanea sativa ''Castanea sativa'', the sweet chestnut, Spanish chestnut or just chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. A substantial, long-lived ...

), one having a girth of about 21 feet. They are estimated to date back to the 1600s and believed to be descended from specimens brought from Spain in the Middle Ages. Tradition has it they were planted "for the delight of Isabel of Castile". Isabel of Castile (1355–1392) was the first Duchess of York, the wife of Edmund Langley who lived in the nearby Royal Palace of Kings Langley.Chipperfield
Dacorum Local Government, Towns and villages website. Accessed January 2014 The common has several ponds, notably the Apostles Pond, which has twelve lime trees surrounding it and was once a monastery fishpond. The village cricket club has a green and pavilion on the northern edge of the common. Two Brewers Inn stands adjacent to the common. It was founded by Robert Waller as an ale house in 1799, originally the middle one of a row of three cottages. It eventually took over its neighbours to make a long frontage on the green. A modern hotel extension has been built to the rear. The pub acquired fame as the training quarters for many notable 19th-century prize-fighters such as

Jem Mace James "Jem" Mace (8 April 1831 – 30 November 1910) was an English boxing champion, primarily during the bare-knuckle era. He was born at Beeston, Norfolk, Beeston, Norfolk. Although nicknamed "The Gypsy", he denied Romani people, Romani ethn ...

Thomas Sayers Tom Sayers (15 or 25 May 18268 November 1865) was an English bare-knuckle prize fighter. There were no formal weight divisions at the time, and although Sayers was only five feet eight inches tall and never weighed much more than 150 pounds, ...

and

Bob Fitzsimmons Robert James Fitzsimmons (26 May 1863 – 22 October 1917) was a British professional boxer who was the sport's first three-division world champion. He also achieved fame for beating Gentleman Jim Corbett (the man who beat John L. Sullivan) ...

who sparred in the Club Room and took their runs round the nearby Chipperfield Common. Facilities in the village include two more pubs, a shop, post office, Kia and Land Rover dealerships, a delicatessen, an Indian restaurant and two garden centres. Chipperfield has three churches:

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

. It also has a primary school, St Pauls C of E, with strong ties to the church, which is located adjacent to the school. Next to the school is a village club called Blackwell's, and tennis courts owned by CTC. Every year, a

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speaking ...

is held in the Village Hall, which is organised by the Chipperfield Theatre Group. There is a lively range of musical activity in the village centred mainly on St Paul's Church, which boasts a fine three manual organ. The choir mounts several choral

evensong Evensong is a church service traditionally held near sunset focused on singing psalms and other biblical canticles. In origin, it is identical to the canonical hour of vespers. Old English speakers translated the Latin word as , which became ...

services each year and a remarkable diversity of concerts, some with orchestra. The Festival of Lessons and Carols at Christmas is accompanied by organ and orchestra and attracts a packed church. Chipperfield Choral Society rehearses in the Village Hall and maintains a popular following at its concerts both at St Paul's and elsewhere, locally. The Cricket Club periodically hosts Jazz concerts. Chipperfield Corinthians FC football team play in the top division of the Herts County Senior League, with a reserve team in the Herts County Reserve and Development West League. In order to preserve its rural feeling the village has very little street lighting.Street Lighting In Chipperfield
Village website, 2 March 1997

References

External links

Chipperfield Village website
- contains a vast amount of information about the village and photos of the notable landmarks and views
Chipperfield Theatre GroupThe village cricket clubSt Pauls Chipperfield ChurchChipperfield Conservation Area Description
- Dacorum Borough Council {{authority control Villages in Hertfordshire Dacorum Civil parishes in Hertfordshire