Westmill (Hitchin)

Westmill is a residential area of Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. It was originally built as a council housing estate in the 1920s. There is a primary school, Oughton Junior, Infant and Nursery School. It forms part of Oughton ward for local government purposes.

It is close to the Oughtonhead Common, a Local Nature Reserve, and Oughtonhead Lane, a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest.

References

Coordinates: 51°57′29″N 0°17′20″W / 51.958°N 0.289°W / 51.958; -0.289

Westmill

Coordinates: 51°55′30″N 0°00′36″W / 51.925°N 0.010°W / 51.925; -0.010

Westmill is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England, with an area of 1036 hectares. A population of 264 was recorded in the 2001 National Census. The village is just to the south of Buntingford, beside the River Rib.

Communications

The Prime Meridian passes to the east of Westmill, as does the Roman road Ermine Street, which ran from London to Lincoln and York. Its route is followed here by the A10 trunk road. There is a skeleton bus service to Buntingford.

West Mill railway station on the Great Eastern Railway's Buntingford Branch Line from St Margarets to Buntingford opened on 3 July 1863. Passenger traffic thrived until the mid-1950s and the rise of car ownership. The line and station closed to passengers on 16 November 1964. The station buildings had been demolished by 1968.

Historic buildings

The large medieval parish church, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and restored in the 19th century, shows signs of a Saxon origin. It is one of a large number of buildings in the village. One, a thatched cottage named Button Snap at Westmill Green, was owned by the writer Charles Lamb from 1812 to 1815. It was through the widow of his godfather, Francis Fielde (died 1809) that Lamb, as he put it, "came into possession of the only landed property which I could ever call my own."

Westmill (disambiguation)

Westmill may be one of the following places in England:

Hitchin

Coordinates: 51°56′49″N 0°16′59″W / 51.947°N 0.283°W / 51.947; -0.283

Hitchin is a market town in North Hertfordshire District in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population as at 2011 of 33,350.

History

Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people mentioned in a 7th-century document, the Tribal Hidage. The tribal name is Brittonic rather than Old English and derives from *siccā, meaning 'dry', which is perhaps a reference to the local stream, the Hiz. It has been suggested that Hitchin was the location of 'Clofeshoh', the place chosen in 673 by Theodore of Tarsus the Archbishop of Canterbury during the Synod of Hertford, the first meeting of representatives of the fledgling Christian churches of Anglo-Saxon England, to hold annual synods of the churches as Theodore attempted to consolidate and centralise Christianity in England. By 1086 Hitchin is described as a Royal Manor in the Domesday Book: the feudal services of Avera and Inward, usually found in the eastern counties, especially Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, were due from the sokemen, but the manor of Hitchin was unique in levying Inward. Evidence has been found to suggest that the town was once provided with an earthen bank and ditch fortification, probably in the early tenth century but this did not last. The modern spelling 'Hitchin' first appears in 1618 in the "Hertfordshire Feet of Fines".

Hitchin (disambiguation)

Hitchin may refer to:

Places

People

Other

See also

Hitchin (UK Parliament constituency)

Hitchin was a parliamentary constituency in Hertfordshire which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election.

Boundaries

1885-1918: The Sessional Divisions of Aldbury (except the civil parishes of Great Hadham and Little Hadham), Buntingford, Hitchin, Odsey, Stevenage, and Welwyn, and the civil parish of Braughing.

1918-1950: The Urban Districts of Baldock, Hitchin, Royston, and Stevenage, the Rural Districts of Ashwell (the civil parishes of Ashwell, Barkway, Barley, Hinxworth, Kelshall, North Royston, Nuthampstead, Reed, South Bassingbourne, South Kneesworth, South Melbourne, and Therfield), Buntingford (the civil parishes of Anstey, Ardeley, Aspenden, Broadfield, Buckland, Cottered, Great Hormead, Layston, Little Hormead, Meesden, Rushden, Sandon, Throcking, Wallington, Westmill, and Wyddiall), Hitchin (the civil parishes of Bygrave, Caldecote, Clothall, Codicote, Graveley, Great Wymondley, Hexton, Holwell, Ickleford, Ippollitts, Kimpton, Kings Walden, Knebworth, Langley, Letchworth, Lilley, Little Wymondley, Newnham, Norton, Offley, Pirton, Preston, Radwell, St Paul's Walden, Shephall, Walsworth, Weston, Willian, and Wymondley), and Welwyn (the civil parishes of Ayot St Lawrence, Ayot St Peter, Digswell, and Welwyn), and in the Rural District of Hertford the civil parishes of Aston, Bennington, Datchworth, Sacombe, Walkern, and Watton-at-Stone.