Place:Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, England

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source: Family History Library Catalog

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Abbots Langley is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire, England. It is an old settlement and is mentioned (under the name of Langelai) in the Domesday Book. Economically the village is closely linked to Watford and was formerly part of the Watford Rural District. In 1974 it was split between the Three Rivers District and the Dacorum District. The population in the Three Rivers District section, according to the 2001 UK census, was 10,472.

History

By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 the village was inhabited by 19 families.

The area was split into four manors, Abbots Langley, Langleybury, Chambersbury, and Hyde. In 1539, Henry VIII seized Abbots Langley and sold it to his military engineer Sir Richard Lee. The Manor of Abbots Langley was bequeathed by Francis Combe in his will of 1641 jointly to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and Trinity College, Oxford. The manors of Langleybury and Chambersbury passed through the Ibgrave and Child families, and in 1711 were conveyed to Sir Robert Raymond then Solicitor General, later Attorney General and Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. On the death of his son without issue in 1756 the manors passed to the Filmer family. The Manor of Hyde passed to Edward Strong in 1714, through his daughter to Sir John Strange, who left the manor to be shared between his children and their descendents (including Admiral Sir George Strong Nares) and then to the possession of F.M. Nares & Co which sold the estate to the British Land Company in 1858.

Kitters Green developed as a separate hamlet by Manor House. The land between Kitters Green and Abbots Langley was bought from the estate of Sarah Smith by the British Land Company in 1866. It laid out plots for development along Adrian, Breakspear, Garden and Popes roads. The development of these plots led to the merger of the two settlements and the loss of Kitters Green's separate identity.

To the south of the village are Leavesden Film Studios, on the former RAF and later Rolls-Royce airfield.

Pope Adrian IV, the only Englishman ever to have become Pope, was born as Nicholas Breakspear in Bedmond, Abbots Langley around the year 1100.

Research Tips

• The hundred of Cashio: Introduction as provided by British History Online in the Victoria County History of Hertfordshire, volume 2, pp 319-322
• The parish of Abbots Langley ibid, volume 2, pp 323-328
• Ordnance Survey map of Hertfordshire 1900 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Ordnance Survey map of Hertfordshire 1944 provided by A Vision of Britain through Time