St Ippolyts (or St Ippollitts) 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 ...

on the southern edge of

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce peopl ...

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. It has a population of approximately 2,000.

Governance

North Hertfordshire District Council

St Ippolyts is located within the local government district of

North Hertfordshire North Hertfordshire is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Letchworth. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the amalgamation of the Urban district (Great Britain and Ir ...

and within the Ward of Hitchwood, Offa and Hoo. Hitchwood, Offa and Hoo Ward is a Multi Member Ward represented by three Councillors
Cllr David Barnard
(

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

)
Cllr Claire Strong
(

) an
Cllr Faye Frost
(

Hertfordshire County Council

St Ippolyts is located within the

Hertfordshire County Council Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England, the United Kingdom. After the 2021 election, it consists of 78 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, ...

Division of Knebworth and Codicote and is represented b
Cllr Richard Thake
(

Parliamentary Representation

The Village is represented in Parliament by

Bim Afolami Abimbola "Bim" Afolami (born 11 February 1986) is a British Conservative Party politician. He has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hitchin and Harpenden since the 2017 general election. Early life Afolami was born and brought up i ...

MP (

) who was first elected as the MP for

Hitchin and Harpenden Hitchin and Harpenden is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Bim Afolami, a Conservative. History The constituency was created for the 1997 general election from parts of several former Her ...

in 2017.

Geography

St Ippolyts is located in between the

A602 The A602 is a road linking Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England, with A10 at Ware in Hertfordshire, via Stevenage. The course of the road has changed significantly since the 1960s with the construction of several bypasses and relief roads. ...

(

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

Road) and the B656 (

Codicote Codicote is a large village, and civil parish about south of Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. It has timber-framed and chequered brick houses, of special interest being the 18th-century Pond House and the half-timbered Taverners Place (forme ...

Road), south-east of Hitchin, Hertfordshire. It lies approximately above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

in a gap in 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. ...

. Some features of the village are a 17th-century gabled house, a timber-framed house formerly known as the Olive Branch Inn, and a 16th-century house built around an even older timbered house.

History

The name of St Ippolyts, although spelled in a variety of ways, is derived from

St Hippolytus Hippolytus of Rome (, ; c. 170 – c. 235 AD) was one of the most important second-third century Christian theologians, whose provenance, identity and corpus remain elusive to scholars and historians. Suggested communities include Rome, Palestin ...

to whom the village church was dedicated. According to Daphne Rance in her book on the parish "St. Ippolyts: a country parish in the nineteenth century" (1987) at various times also known as Epolites, Pallets, Nipples or St Ibbs. In the same vein, the 1881 census mentions the following 28 place names, all of which are believed to refer to it: Iplits, Ipolits, Ipollitts, Ipollyts, Ipolytes, Ipolyts, Ippatyts, Ipplits, Ipployts, Ipplyts, Ippolett, Ippoletts, Ippolits, Ippolitss, Ippolits, Ippolitss, Ippolitts, Ippollit, Ippollits, Ippollitts, Ippollyts, Ippollytts, Ippololits, Ippolts, Ippolytis, Ippolyts, Ippolytts, Ippoplitts. The name of the parish was officially changed from St Ippollitts to St Ippolyts on 2 October 1996. Even in the 21st Century, official road signs to the village on consecutive junctions on the nearby A602 show contradictory spellings of the village name.

St Ippolyts Church

The church was built in 1087 in a beautiful setting on the hillside above the village. According to the church records, the building was funded by grants supplied by Judith de Lens, the niece of

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

. De Lens gave evidence against her husband Waltheof, a

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

Earl, which led to his execution. The funding of the church was an attempt to make amends for this act. The church was rebuilt in the mid nineteenth century using old materials 'recycled' from the nearby abandoned

Minsden Chapel Minsden Chapel is an isolated ruined chapel in the fields above the hamlet of Chapelfoot, near Preston, Hertfordshire. Today it is a roofless shell, partly surrounded by a small wood, and accessible only by footpath. It is a Scheduled Ancient M ...

. Apart from St Ippolyts, the church also serves the nearby villages of Gosmore and Langley. The noted theologian

Fenton John Anthony Hort Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892), known as F. J. A. Hort, was an Irish-born theologian and editor, with Brooke Foss Westcott of a critical edition of ''The New Testament in the Original Greek''. Life He was born on 23 April 182 ...

(Fenton Hort) is amongst the former vicars of St Ippolyts church where he stayed for 15 years before taking up a fellowship and lectureship at Emmanuel College in Cambridge. Politician

George Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd George Ambrose Lloyd, 1st Baron Lloyd, (19 September 1879 – 4 February 1941) was a British Conservative politician strongly associated with the " Diehard" wing of the party. From 1937 to 1941 he was chairman of the British Council, in which ...

(1879-1941) was buried in the churchyard, as is

Geoffrey Lane, Baron Lane Geoffrey Dawson Lane, Baron Lane, (17 July 1918 – 22 August 2005) was a British Judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 1980 to 1992. The later part of his term was marred by a succession of disputed convictions. Lane's criti ...

(1918-2005), former

Lord Chief Justice of England Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...

Almshoe

The ancient manor of Almshoe, mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, is located in the south of the parish. Almshoe Bury—now a farmhouse and wedding venue—is a grade I listed building.

Nearby towns and villages

Gosmore Gosmore is a hamlet in the parish of St Ippolyts (where the population at the 2011 Census was included) near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. One interesting feature is Bunyan's Dell, a natural amphitheatre deep inside Wain Wood where the au ...

Great Wymondley Great Wymondley is a village and former civil parish situated near Hitchin, now in the parish of Wymondley,Kings Walden King's Walden is a civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. The name includes an apostrophe, but this is often omitted. The main settlement is now Breachwood Green, and there are also the hamlets of King's Walden, Ley Green, Darleyha ...

Little Wymondley Little Wymondley is a village and former civil parish situated between Hitchin and Stevenage, now in the parish of Wymondley, in the North Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. Paradoxically, it has a larger population ...

* Preston * Stevenage

References

External links

St Ippolyts Church web site
{{authority control Saint Ippolyts Areas of Hitchin Civil parishes in Hertfordshire