Stansted Mountfitchet
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox UK place
Stansted Mountfitchet, commonly known as Stansted, is a village and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England. It lies Template:Convert north-east of London. It gives its name to London Stansted Airport, which is Template:Convert south-east from the village centre. The village is served by Stansted Mountfitchet railway station.
The village is situated in north-west Essex, near the county boundary with Hertfordshire and Template:Convert north of Bishop's Stortford. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 8,691 and the built up area had a population of 8,625.
Toponymy
The name "Stansted" is Old English for stony place. The Mountfitchet name comes from its owners after the Norman Conquest, to distinguish it from other places called Stansted or Stanstead, such as Stanstead Abbotts Template:Convert to the south-west in Hertfordshire, or Stansted, Kent.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Stansted Mountfitchet is the legal name of the parish,<ref name=electionmaps>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Stansted Mountfitchet is also used by the Office for National Statistics as the name for the built up area.<ref name=bua/> In official postal addresses, the Royal Mail calls the village just "Stansted" rather than "Stansted Mountfitchet".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} (See for example postcode CM24 8BE.)</ref>
History
Stansted was a Saxon settlement, which predated the Norman conquest. In the 1086 Domesday Book, Stansted was in the ancient hundred of Uttlesford.<ref>Open Domesday Online: Stansted (Mountfichet), accessed November 2017.</ref> It was one of many villages and manors controlled by the powerful Robert Gernon de Montfichet (from Montfiquet in Calvados, Normandy). His elder son was William de Montfichet. By 1290, Stansted began to be referred to as Stansted Mountfitchet.<ref>Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)</ref> A small remnant of his castle remains, around which a reconstruction of an early Norman castle has been built. Believed to have been fortified originally in the Iron Age, and subsequently by the Romans and Vikings, construction of the Norman castle began in 1066. Lord Mountfitchet is also considered the 11th century builder of Montfichet's Tower in London.
St Mary the Virgin's Church, built in the 1120s, is a redundant church under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The brick west tower was added in 1692. A chapel of ease dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist was built in 1889 nearer the centre of the village and is now the village church. Stansted Hall was built in 1871 by William Fuller Maitland (d. 1876).
Folklore
In a nineteenth-century account from Stansted Mountfitchet, a shepherd cursed his task aloud, wishing the Devil would set up his sheepfold for him. The Devil appeared, accepted the bargain, and began building it magically. The shepherd narrowly escaped being trapped inside.<ref>L.F. Newman,‘Some Notes on the Folklore of Cambridgeshire and the Eastern Counties’, Folklore 56 (1945): 287-293 at 288. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1257259</ref>
Landmarks
Other village attractions include the House on the Hill Toy Museum, which its owners claim "is the largest toy museum in the World". Located next to Mountfitchet Castle and Norman Village of 1066, both attractions are owned by Alan Goldsmith. The museum opened in 1991 and holds over 80,000 toys, mostly from the 1950s to the 1990s. A working windmill built in 1787 is in the village, and is open to the public once a month.Template:Citation needed
During the Second World War, the US Air Force constructed an airfield near the village. After the war ended, it was subsequently taken over by the government and developed as a commercial airport. Today, London Stansted Airport is accessible by road from Junction 8 of the M11 motorway, near Bishop's Stortford and direct by train from London Liverpool Street.Template:Citation needed The airport complex straddles the three civil parishes of Stansted Mountfitchet, Elsenham and Takeley, with the main passenger facilities being in Takeley parish.<ref name=electionmaps/>
Economy
In March 2013, Stansted Mountfitchet was named as the UK's fourth most internet-friendly town. The Google eTown Awards recognise the top places where businesses are most actively embracing the web and Stansted's high ranking reflects the increased use of the internet to spur economic growth. The results put Stansted in fourth place behind Richmond, in third, Edinburgh, in second, and Stratford upon Avon, which took the top spot.<ref>Stansted crowned as leading UK e-commerce town, hertsandessexobserver.co.uk; accessed 11 November 2015.</ref>
Titan Airways has its head office in Enterprise House on the property of Stansted Airport.<ref>Titan Airways website; retrieved 16 December 2011.</ref> Several defunct airlines had their head offices on the Stansted property. AirUK (later KLM uk) had its head office in Stansted House.<ref>AirUk homepage; retrieved 28 February 2010.</ref><ref>82 "World Airline Directory", flightglobal.com, 18–24 March 1998.</ref> Buzz had its head office in Endeavour House.<ref>Buzz website, archive.org; retrieved on 2 September 2009.</ref> AB Airlines had its head office in Enterprise House.<ref>An Introduction to AB Airlines, archive.org, 30 January 1998; retrieved 7 February 2011.</ref> Lloyd International Airways had its head office at Lloyd House.<ref>580 World Airline Directory, Flight International, 10 April 1969.</ref> Go Fly had its head office at Enterprise House.<ref>"World Airline Directory", Flight International, 27 March – 2 April 2001.</ref>
Until it merged with Lastminute.com in 2006, Travelocity.co.uk had its headquarters in Stansted Mountfitchet and employed around 60 Essex and Hertfordshire locals. The office closed in the early part of 2006 and Travelocity.co.uk formally came under the umbrella of Lastminute.com, which has offices in London and Woking, Surrey.
Governance
There are three tiers of local government covering Stansted Mountfitchet, at parish, district, and county level: Stansted Mountfitchet Parish Council, Uttlesford District Council, and Essex County Council. The parish council is based at the Mountfitchet Exchange at 72 Chapel Hill.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Population
At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 8,691 and the Stansted Mountfitchet built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics had a population of 8,625.<ref name=2021census/><ref name=bua/>
The population of the parish had been 5,533 at the 2001 census, increasing to 6,011 at the 2011 census.<ref name=ONS>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Sport and leisure
Non-League football club Stansted F.C. (winners of the FA Vase in 1983-84) play at the Hargrave Park sports ground in the village and there is also a cricket club based at the ground.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Notable people
- Actor James Frain was raised in Stansted Mountfitchet.
- Munroe Bergdorf, model and activist.
- Kate Johnson, novelist, was raised in Stansted Mountfitchet.