Kings Langley

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Template:About Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox UK place Kings Langley is a village, former manor and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. It is sited Template:Convert north-west of London and to the south of the Chiltern Hills; it now forms part of the London commuter belt. The village is divided between two local government districts by the River Gade with the larger western portion in the Borough of Dacorum and smaller part, to the east of the river, in Three Rivers District. It was the location of Kings Langley Palace and the associated King's Langley Priory, of which few traces survive.

It is situated Template:Convert south of Hemel Hempstead and Template:Convert north of Watford.

The manor is first mentioned in surviving records as æt Langalege (Old English æt Langeleage) in a Saxon charter dated 1042–1049.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It appears as Langelai in the Domesday Book (1086) and as Langel' Regis (“Langley of the King”) in 1254. The name means “long wood or clearing”.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> From the 11th to the 14th centuries the settlement is often recorded as “Chilterns Langley” to distinguish it from Abbots Langley; with increased royal involvement it is attested by 1346 as “Kyngeslangley” and by 1428 as “Langele Regis”.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

Archaeological evidence indicates continuous human activity in the Kings Langley area from the Lower Palaeolithic period.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A Roman villa of the winged-corridor type, dated to the 2nd century AD, stood in the southern part of the present village, just east of the River Gade, between what is now the Roman Gardens housing estate and Home Park Industrial Estate, probably overlying an earlier 1st-century elite Catuvellauni residence.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The site was first identified in 1825 during works for Kings Langley railway station,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and was later largely excavated between June 1981 and March 1982.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Identified features included a bath suite and hypocaust heating.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The earliest known written reference to the manor of Langley dates to the 1040s, when the Saxon thegn Æthelwine Niger granted the land to Leofstan, abbot of St Albans Abbey.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Leofstan subsequently granted the western portion of the district to a knight named Turcoht, an act which may have led to the later division between Kings Langley and Abbots Langley.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

By 1066 the manor had been lost to the abbey and was held by Saeric and Thori as vassals of Leofwine Godwinson (Template:Circa–1066).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Following the Norman Conquest, the manor formed part of the Hundred of Danish and was among the lands granted to Robert, Count of Mortain (Template:Circa–Template:Circa), uterine half-brother of William the Conqueror (Template:Circa–1087); his tenant was a certain Ralf.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The assessed value declined from £8 in 1066 to £2 in 1086, a reduction likely caused by post-Conquest disruption.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The present village developed as a linear village along the old road from London to Berkhamsted and beyond to the Midlands.<ref name="Munby">Lionel M, Munby, The History of Kings Langley</ref>

Following the forfeiture of William, Count of Mortain (before 1084–after 1140) after his failed rebellion in 1106, the manor was granted to the Chenduit family as part of the Honour of Berkhamsted.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Gesta Abbatum reports that Paul (abbot 1077–1093), abbot of St Albans Abbey, recovered Kings Langley for the abbey in the late 11th century; however, the Chenduit family retained control of the manor as vassals of the Crown, suggesting either a short-lived recovery or a reassertion of specific ecclesiastical rights.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Biodynamic allotments and building of Tudor origin on the grounds of Kings Langley Priory established by Edward II in 1308

By the 1270s Sir Stephen de Chenduit (before 1235–after 1278) had fallen into debt, and the manor was acquired by Eleanor of Castile (1241–1290), queen consort of Edward I (1239–1307).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite report</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Shortly afterwards a royal palace was developed to the west of the village on Le Corte Hill (now Langley Hill), with a deer park extending to the south.<ref name="HVB">Template:Cite book</ref> It is unclear whether this represented a new foundation or an enlargement of an earlier complex.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Edward III (1312–1377) later held court at Kings Langley during the Black Death to avoid London, and the village briefly served as a seat of government.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

King's Langley Priory, a Dominican house, was founded in 1308 by Edward II (1284–1327) adjacent to the royal palace.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Both the palace and the priory church fell into ruin after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, although elements of each site survive.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall (Template:Circa–1312), the favourite of Edward II, was interred with "great ceremony" in the priory church.<ref name="DNB">Template:Cite DNB</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Having been summarily executed without trial in Warwickshire in June 1312, his burial had to be deferred since he had been excommunicated by Robert Winchelsey, Archbishop of Canterbury earlier that year.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref name="DNB"/> He was buried on 2 January 1315, after Edward obtained him absolution.<ref name="DNB"/><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The exact location of his remains is unknown.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Following his deposition on 30 September 1399, Richard II (1367–1400) died in captivity, probably of starvation, at Pontefract Castle.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After his body was displayed at St Paul’s Cathedral, he was interred in the priory church on 6 March 1401;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> on 4 December 1413 his remains were removed and taken to Westminster Abbey.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Other notable burials at the priory included the fourth surviving son of Edward III, Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York (1341–1402), who was born at the palace.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ralph Stafford (Template:Circa–1385), a knight in the household of Richard II,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Anne de Mortimer (1388–1411), an ancestor of the House of York and grandmother of Edward IV (1442–1483) and Richard III (1452–1485).<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The All Saints' Church was built in the 14th century on the site of an earlier church.<ref name="HE-AS">Template:Cite web</ref> The tomb of Edmund of Langley was moved there following the Dissolution of the Priory (c.1539) and placed in a specially built north-east chapel in 1878.<ref name="HE-AS" />

All Saints' Church, Kings Langley

The 18th century Sparrows Herne turnpike road (later the A41 trunk road) traversed the Chilterns via the valley of the River Gade and ran down the village high street. The 16th century Saracen's Head public house is a coaching inn which flourished in this period.

The Grand Union Canal dates from 1797 and the London and Birmingham Railway from 1838 which later became the West Coast Main Line, the main railway line from London to the north west. The canal and railway line pass just east of the village at Kings Langley railway station.

There are many businesses located near the station in Home Park Industrial Estate which was also the site of the Construction and Engineering Centre of West Herts College from 2007–2019, when it was moved to Hemel Hempstead.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Housing developments in the 20th century have led to the village spreading out on either side of the main road. The A41 has now been diverted west of the village leaving the high street to local traffic for the first time in centuries.

During the Second World War, Barnes Lodge, a former country house located off Hempstead Road near Rucklers Lane,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> served as the principal radio communications centre linking the Polish Underground (Armia Krajowa) in occupied Poland with the Polish government-in-exile and its military staff in London.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> It worked in close coordination with the Polish Section of the Special Operations Executive.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> The house was demolished in Template:Circa,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the present building, retaining the name Barnes Lodge, was constructed on the site of its former stables.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Former Ovaltine factory, Kings Langley. This is the listed art deco façade of the former Ovaltine factory. It was redeveloped into housing in 2002.

Kings Langley was the site of the factory making Ovaltine chocolate drink; the listed factory facade, designed Template:Circa by James Albert Bowden is now all that is left and still stands alongside the railway line among a new housing development. The Ovaltine factory itself has been converted into a series of flats and duplexes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The former Ovaltine Egg Farm was converted into energy-efficient offices which house Renewable Energy Systems. The complex incorporates a highly visible 225 kW Vestas V29<ref name="power_from_the_wind">Template:Cite web</ref> wind turbine, nicknamed "Lofty"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> alongside the M25.

The wind turbine overlooking the former Ovaltine Model Dairy Farm, now the offices of Renewable Energy Systems Ltd.

Kings Langley School is the local comprehensive school, situated on Love Lane to the west of the village.

Kings Langley was also the site of a Waldorf School, the Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley which closed in 2019. This was built on the grounds of the old palace. There was a small display cabinet of finds from the palace period in the school entrance foyer.<ref name="KL Hist">Kings Langley Local History and Museum Society</ref>

The village became twinned with Achiet-le-Grand in France in November 2009, in honour of Christopher Cox from the village who won a Victoria Cross in fighting near Achiet-le-Grand in the First World War.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Transport

Kings Langley railway station is a stop on the West Coast Main Line. London Northwestern Railway operates a regular service between Template:Rws and Template:Rws.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The M25 London Orbital motorway passes just south of the village on an imposing viaduct across the River Gade valley. To the north of junction 20 with the A41, a dual-carriageway bypasses Kings Langley and continues to the south of Tring where it flows into the original motorway-standard by-pass. The old route through Kings Langley is now classified the A4251.

Rucklers Lane

The Rucklers Lane Community Hall was built for the workers of nearby Shendish Manor in 1909 as a memorial to Arthur Longman, the owner of the estate

Just to the north of Kings Langley is a small village called Rucklers Lane, named after the road it is built on. The origin of the settlement in the early 20th century was the construction of a number of mock tudor houses for the workers on the nearby Shendish Manor estate. A community hall was also built for the workers in 1909 as a memorial to Arthur Longman, the owner of the estate; it was originally intended as a chapel of ease to avoid the long walk to the parish church.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Further west along the lane is Phasels Wood Scout Camp and Activity Centre which opened in 1937.<ref>Brittain, Frank L (2008), Milestones of 100 Years of Hertfordshire Scouting, Hertfordshire County Scout Council (p. 62)</ref>

Mentions in literature

Sport

Football

Kings Langley FC, as of 2023/2024, play in the Division 1 (Central) Division of the Southern Football League.

Cricket

Kings Langley CC currently play in Divisions 2B, Division 7 West and Division 10 South, of the Saracens Hertfordshire Cricket League.

Bowls

Kings Langley Bowls Club is situated in Green Park at the end of the Nap car park. It is a popular lawn bowls club with club and district competitions for bowlers of all abilities. It includes a club house with licensed bar and good social programs.

Notable people

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References

Citations

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Sources

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