Place:Wakeley, Hertfordshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

Wakeley is a small hamlet which was once a larger village abandoned in mediaeval times. It was an extra-parochial place until 1858, when it was made a separate civil parish. The civil parish was abolished in 1883 and the territory absorbed into the neighbouring parish of Aspenden.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Wakeley from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"WAKELY, an extra-parochial tract in Royston [registration] district, Herts; 2 miles SW of Buntingford. Acres: 470. Population: 4. House: 1."

The equivalent notes from A Vision of Britain through Time describe Wakeley as a chapelry. According to the map of 1900 referenced below, Wakeley was located in Aspenden or the neighbouring parish of Westmill. This would probably be true before and after it was a civil parish.

Research Tips

• Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, Register Office Block CHR002, County Hall, Hertford SG13 8EJ. Indexes and Catalog
• GENUKI on Hertfordshire (individual parishes covered separately)
• Hertfordshire Family History Society
• Edwinstree Hundred is not covered in the Victoria County History of Hertfordshire as provided by British History Online.
• 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