King's Walden is a

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the English county of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

. The parish contains several settlements, with the largest village being Breachwood Green. King's Walden itself is a non-nucleated settlement, with several small clusters of development, notably around the parish church, at Plough Lane (where the village shop and pub are located), and at Ley Green. The parish also includes the

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

of Darleyhall, Lye Hill, Wandon End, Wandon Green and Winch Hill. At the south of the parish there is Lawrence End Park. The parish covers a large rural area lying south-west of the town of

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district of Hertfordshire, England. The town dates from at least the 7th century. It lies in the valley of the River Hiz at the north-eastern end of the Chiltern Hills ...

, which serves as its

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in t ...

, and also adjoins the north-eastern edge of

Luton Luton () is a town and borough in Bedfordshire, England. The borough had a population of 225,262 at the 2021 census. Luton is on the River Lea, about north-west of London. The town's foundation dates to the sixth century as a Saxon settleme ...

. The end of the runway at

Luton Airport London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, England, situated east of the town centre, and is the fourth-busiest airport serving London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Limited, a company wholly owned by ...

was in the parish until a boundary change in 1989 transferred that area to Luton.

King's Walden settlement

The parish name is derived form the Old English walh denu','' which means a valley of

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, w ...

. The name is used by both King's Walden and the neighbouring parish of St Paul's Walden. Walden was cited in a charter dated AD 888, when King

Æthelred of Mercia Æthelred (; died after 704) was king of Mercia from 675 until 704. He was the son of Penda of Mercia and came to the throne in 675, when his brother, Wulfhere of Mercia, died from an illness. Within a year of his accession he invaded Kent, ...

granted land to a thegn, Wulfgar. At the time it was close to the border between English Mercia and the

Danelaw The Danelaw (, ; ; ) was the part of History of Anglo-Saxon England, England between the late ninth century and the Norman Conquest under Anglo-Saxon rule in which Danes (tribe), Danish laws applied. The Danelaw originated in the conquest and oc ...

. In 1086, the community of ''Waldenei'' contained 53 households, which was large compared to other Domesday era settlements in the ancient

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

of Hitchin. The community of King's Walden itself is a loose-knit dispersed settlement in a number of clusters, notably around the parish church and village hall in the south, around the village shop and pub (The Plough) on Plough Lane in the centre, and up to Ley Green in the north, all of which have King's Walden postal addresses.

Breachwood Green

Breachwood Green is the largest settlement in the parish of King's Walden. Its built up area had an estimated population of 721 in 2022. To get data for individual built-up areas, query the 'Population Estimates / Projections' dataset, then the 'Small area (2021 based) by single year of age - England and Wales' and then choose '2022 built-up areas' for the geography. It lies 1 mile south-west of King's Walden itself. Breachwood Green has one pub, the Red Lion, which is owned by

Greene King Greene King is a British pub and brewing company founded in 1799, currently based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. The company also owns brands including Hungry Horse and Farmhouse Inns, as well as other pubs, restaurants and hotels. It was listed o ...

. The village has the only school in the parish, Breachwood Green JMI, which was built in 1859. During the 1970s there was a separate Post Office and Village Stores located in different parts of the village. The Post Office was originally located in Chapel Road next to the Red Lion. This moved a few hundred yards along the road north, near St Mary's Rise. It then moved again in the mid-1970s to the village store on retirement of the village postmistress. The Village Store closed during the 1990s and has become part of a neighbouring car showroom which was formerly the village petrol station. The village also has a large Baptist chapel, built in 1904 in a free

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

style with

Perpendicular Gothic Perpendicular Gothic (also Perpendicular, Rectilinear, or Third Pointed) architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-ce ...

references. Breachwood Green Windmill

To the north of the village is Breachwood Green Mill, a partially restored windmill (without sails).

Darleyhall

Darleyhall lies ½ mile west of Breachwood Green.

Lye Hill

Lye Hill lies ½ mile south of Breachwood Green.

Wandon End

Wandon End lies 1 mile west of Breachwood Green.Open Domesday Online: Wandon End and Wandon Green
accessed January 2018.

Wandon Green

Wandon Green lies 1 mile south of Breachwood Green and includes Diamond End.

Winch Hill

Winch Hill lies 1 mile south-west of Breachwood Green. It is made up of several houses and a derelict farm adjacent to Eastern perimeter of

London Luton Airport London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, England, situated east of the town centre, and is the Airports of London, fourth-busiest airport serving London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Limited, a comp ...

; much of the land here is owned by the

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priva ...

Governance

There are three tiers of local government covering King's Walden, at

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

, and

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

level: King's Walden Parish Council, North Hertfordshire District Council, and

Hertfordshire County Council Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England. The council was created in 1889. It is responsible for a wide range of public services in the county, including social c ...

. The parish council meets at Breachwood Green Village Hall on Chapel Road.

References

External links

History of Breachwood Green in the parish of King's Walden
{{authority control Villages in Hertfordshire Civil parishes in Hertfordshire