Welham Green is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the parish of

North Mymms North Mymms is a civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. At the 2011 Census the civil parish had a population of 8,921. The village itself is an enclosure. North Mymms Park and Brookmans Park enclose large areas of the parish. Even th ...

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 is situated a mile to the west of the Great North Road coaching route that used to run through the neighbouring hamlet of

Bell Bar Bell Bar is a hamlet located in North Mymms, Hertfordshire, England. It is in the civil parish of North Mymms. Thought to be named after the ancient Bell Inn which stood nearby, Bell Bar (often spelt as "Bell Barr" on old maps, such as that of ...

from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and the north. The Great North Road is now by-passed by the A1(M). Even so, Welham Green has developed into a small village over the last 100 years, helped by the 1986 opening of its own railway station between

Brookmans Park Brookmans Park is a village in Hertfordshire, southeast England, known for its BBC transmitter station. Brookmans Park railway station, on the East Coast Main Line, is operated by Great Northern. It is also a waypoint used in air navigation ...

and Hatfield on the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...

. Recent housing development has portended the joining of the village with the neighbouring town of Hatfield. Some residents, including the

Green Belt A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which hav ...

Society, wishing to maintain Welham Green's character, have resisted such development.

First balloon landing in England

In the village, on the corner of Huggins Lane and Parsonage Lane, is a stone

plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In c ...

marking the brief landing at 3.30pm on 15 September 1784, of the Italian balloonist

Vincenzo Lunardi Vincenzo Lunardi (11 January 1754 in Lucca – 1 August 1806 in Lisbon) was a pioneering Italian aeronaut, born in Lucca. Ascents in England Vincenzo Lunardi's family were of minor Tuscan nobility from Lucca, and his father had married late in li ...

. The actual spot where the first

hydrogen filled balloon Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, a ...

flight over England touched down i
almost three miles away
opposite Queenswood School north of Shepherds Way (B157) to the south-east of Brookmans Park. The plinth states that on landing Lunardi handed a cat and a dog that had accompanied him from London before re-ascending and continuing north east. According to witness statements at the time the cat, which had become ill, was cared for by a local girl who had been working in the cornfield where the balloon touched down. Marker-PICT2724

The plinth reads: Near this spot at 3.30 in the afternoon of September 15, 1784 Vincenzo Lunardi the Italian Balloonist made his first landing whilst on his pioneer flight in the English atmosphere. Having handed out a cat and dog the partners of his flight from London he re-ascended and continued North Eastward.

Public transport

The village is served by

Welham Green railway station Welham Green railway station serves the village of Welham Green in Hertfordshire, England. It is measured from King's Cross on the East Coast Main Line. Welham Green is just south of the scene of the Hatfield rail crash in 2000 and was in ...

and local bus services provided by Uno,

Centrebus Centrebus is a bus company based in Leicester operating services in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. Centrebus have a 51% shareholding in High Peak Buses and since December 2019 through c ...

and

Sullivan Buses Sullivan Buses is a bus company based in South Mimms, Hertfordshire, England. Founded in 1998, it operates local bus services in and around Hertfordshire and north London including school services, rail replacement bus services in and near London ...

References

External links

The historic North Mymms balloon landing
Villages in Hertfordshire {{Hertfordshire-geo-stub