Wallington is a small 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

North Hertfordshire North Hertfordshire is one of ten local government districts in the county of Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Letchworth Garden City and the largest town is Hitchin. The district also includes the towns of Baldock and Royston ...

district 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 ...

, England. It lies east of the town of Baldock. Nearby villages include

Rushden Rushden is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district, in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England, around east of Northampton. The parish is on the border with Bedfordshire, north of B ...

, with which it shares a parish council, and Sandon. The Icknield Way Path passes through the village on its 110-mile journey from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to

Knettishall Heath Knettishall Heath is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Knettishall in Suffolk, England. A larger area of 176 hectares is the Knettishall Heath Nature Reserve, which is managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. Despite its n ...

in Suffolk. The author

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

lived in the village in the 1930s and 1940s.

History

The village appears to have been named for its Romano-British population.

Buildings of interest

The Church of St Mary is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

lying at the southern end of the village. The nave, west tower and windows date from the mid-15th Century. The chancel was rebuilt in 1864. File:StMaryChurch.WallingtonHerts.jpg, Interior view. Church of St Mary, Wallington. File:No 2 Kits Lane, Wallington 2020-07-18.jpg, No 2 Kits Lane, Wallington. George Orwell residence circa 1936–1940 File:WallingtonHertzUKmap.jpg, Map of Wallington File:WallingtonHertzUKbooklets.jpg, Booklets available at St Mary Church in 2013.

George Orwell

The author

(real name Eric Blair) lived in a small cottage at no 2 Kits Lane, known as The Stores, in the village from 1936 to 1940, and at occasional weekends (when he was otherwise mainly in London) until he gave up the lease on the cottage in 1947. A commemorative plaque was placed there in 1989 by Hertfordshire County Council. This plaque is however not accurate, in that it refers to Orwell living at the Stores until 1940, whereas he had the lease until April 1947, and did stay at the house from time to time until at least the death of his first wife Eileen in 1945. He had married Eileen at the parish church on 9 June 1936. Orwell wrote his book ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' (originally ''Animal Farm: A Fairy Story'') is a satirical allegorical novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic far ...

'' in 1944, probably much of it while he was at the village and certainly drew on his experiences there for inspiration, especially Manor Farm and The Great Barn. The farm in the village is, as in the book called Manor Farm and in ''Animal Farrm'' the village is 'Willingdon'. Other books that he wrote while he lived in the village include ''

Homage to Catalonia ''Homage to Catalonia'' is a 1938 memoir by English writer George Orwell, in which he accounts his personal experiences and observations while fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Covering the period between December 1936 and June 1937, Orwell re ...

'' and ''

The Road to Wigan Pier ''The Road to Wigan Pier'' is a book by the English writer George Orwell, first published in 1937. Its first half documents his sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class in Lancashire and Yorkshire in the ...

'' (which he had largely researched before he moved to Wallington, but which was written and published after his arrival). Many of his notable essays, reviews and articles in various journals and collections, were also written during this period. In 2011 the village was involved in the George Orwell Festival of Letchworth and Wallington.

Governance

There are three tiers of local government covering Wallington, 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: Rushden and Wallington Parish Council, North Hertfordshire District Council, and Hertfordshire County Council. The parish council is a grouped parish council, also covering the neighbouring parish of Rushden. The parish council holds its meetings alternately at Wallington Village Hall and Rushden Village Hall.

Population

At the 2021 census the population of the parish was 137. The population had been 150 in 2011.

References

External links

Wallington Village Website

The George Orwell Festival
* Church of St Mary, Wallington a
British Listed Buildings

Orwell's Life in Wallington
Villages in Hertfordshire Civil parishes in Hertfordshire {{hertfordshire-geo-stub