St Paul's Walden

Human settlement in England

North Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Region

East

CountryEnglandSovereign stateUnited KingdomPost townHitchinPostcode districtSG4Dialling code01438PoliceHertfordshireFire Hertfordshire Ambulance East of England UK Parliament

Hitchin and Harpenden

List of places: UK; England; Hertfordshire

51°53′09″N 0°16′01″W / 51.88580°N 0.26690°W / 51.88580; -0.26690

St Paul's Walden is a village about 5 miles (8 km) south of Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. The civil parish of St Paul's Walden also includes the village of Whitwell and the hamlet of Bendish. At the 2011 Census, the population of the civil parish was 1,293.^[1]

After the Reformation the manor belonged to St Paul's Cathedral; the name St Paul's Walden serves to distinguish the parish from King's Walden, although the Dean and Chapter sold their property in the 17th century.

Notable residents

St Paul's Walden has two 18th-century mansions.

Stagenhoe

Stagenhoe was once owned by the Earls of Caithness

Sir Arthur Sullivan rented the property in the 1880s around the time he composed The Mikado.^[2]

St Paul's Walden Bury

St Paul's Walden Bury is owned by the Bowes-Lyon family. Members include Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. While the details of her birth in 1900 are uncertain, the house is one of the locations that has been posited as her birthplace.^[3] It is accepted that she was baptised in All Saints' church, St Paul's Walden.^[4]^[3]

On 23 January 1923, the then Prince Albert, Duke of York, later to become King George VI, drove up to St Paul's Walden in his sports car, and proposed to Elizabeth in the woods at the Bury.^[5]

Gardens

The gardens of St Paul's Walden Bury are listed as grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.^[6] They are occasionally opened to the public under the National Garden Scheme, a charity of which the Queen Mother was patron.^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b "St Paul's Walden Parish". NOMIS. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
^ "Stagenhoe" (PDF).
^ ^a ^b "Welcome to the history of All Saints, St. Paul's Walden". St Paul's Walden Parish Magazine. Archived from the original on 24 August 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
^ Whitelaw, Jeffrey W. (13 October 1988). Hidden Hertfordshire (First ed.). Countryside Books. ISBN 9781853060250.
^ Express, Britain. "Queen Mother Biography". Britain Express.
^ Historic England. "St Paul's Walden Bury (1000150)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
^ "St Paul's Walden Bury". National Garden Scheme.