Furneux Pelham or Furneaux Pelham 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
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. The village is one of the Pelhams, part of an early medieval larger swathe of land known as Pelham including
Brent Pelham
Brent Pelham is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England, and situated approximately 5 miles (8 km) east of Buntingford. It is one of the three Pelhams, with Stocking Pelham and ...
to the north and
Stocking Pelham to the east and north-east.
The village is largely
linear
Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear r ...
covering much of the width of the parish from east to west and is
buffered by gently sloped fields with some woodland to all sides. It is known for its
ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
(Violet's Lane) to the north along the upper
Ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
which is over long traversable by 4x4 enthusiasts most of the year and in the periods of least flow by experienced off-road motorcyclists.
Landmarks
The village has a church, St Mary the Virgin, with a medieval carved wooden roof which was restored and elaborately painted in the 1960s by the artist John Norbury. The spire has the motto "Time Flies, Mind your Business'" on the clock. Furneux Pelham has a large pub the ''Brewery Tap'' opposite the site of the former Rayments Brewery. A central cluster of 11 homes is pre-Edwardian and listed around one of the village's three-ways junctions accompanied by later houses in more basic and some in a similar style.
Furneux Pelham Hall
Furneux Pelham Hall has parts dating from the 18th century and is Grade II* listed, the middle category of
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
under the national statutory preservation scheme for buildings and their setting. Furneux Pelham Hall has two barns dating to the seventeenth and eighteenth century with some farmland to the west. It is late sixteenth century with later modifications and listed in the middle category of listed buildings. It has distinctive half-free
gable end
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
s with small attic windows inbuilt with intermittent square-moulded brick labels to resemble stone, along with a dark brick façade and large contrasting white nineteenth-century wood-barred and transomed casements around the windows. Its main staircase dates from the late seventeenth century as does the wood panelling, as well as from the century earlier.
In the far south-east Hixham Hall, a farm and from its name implying a former lesser
manor, has a granary and barn which are of seventeenth-century timber-framed construction, initial category but rare listed buildings in the home counties of this type and date.
Barleycroft End and East End
The village street progresses east into these localities of Furneux Pelham.
History
Pelham undivided in the Domesday book of 1086 appears as one key holding of that survey and six others. It contained 105 households and was assessed as worth 12.3 geld/gold units (very large) taxable at 3.3 geld units. To its lord in 1066 its people rendered £6 per year; then one less in 1086 (£5). Its main holding counted (as men or other heads of household) 7 villagers, 7 smallholders, 1 slave, 1 priest and 6 cottagers recorded in the national survey, 7 ploughlands, 3 lord's plough teams, 4 men's plough teams, meadow of 2.5 ploughlands, woodland worth 100 pigs.
Its Lords in 1066 were five freemen and one thane as feudal tenants holding of Almer of Bennington;
King Edward and Eskil of Ware. Its replacement lords by 1086 were two men-at arms holding of the
Bishop of London
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
(St Paul's).
In the nineteenth century the economy remained very agricultural, with large families occupying fewer buildings and few of the other industries, retired economic sector and broad-based businesses seen today.
The former brewery of the village was built in 1860 by William Rayment and when it was purchased by
Greene King
Greene King is a large pub retailer and brewer. It is based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The company owns pubs, restaurants and hotels. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by CK Assets in October 2019.
H ...
in 1928 it had an estate of 35 public houses. The brewery closed in 1987 while supplying, optionally with other Greene King competing ales, 27 public houses with its one remaining beer, Rayments BBA.
A murder took place of retired Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Riley Workman on 7 January 2004.
The former gamekeeper who committed the murder later confessed while in prison for another murder and was sentenced to a minimum of 32 years in November 2012.
[''Colonel Riley Workman murder: Former gamekeeper guilty'' BBC online news 5 November 2012, accessed 5 November 2012](_blank)
/ref>
See also
* The Hundred Parishes
* List of places in England with counterintuitive pronunciations: A–L
References
External links
The Brewery Tap website
{{authority control
Villages in Hertfordshire
Civil parishes in Hertfordshire
East Hertfordshire District