Hinxworth is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

North Hertfordshire North Hertfordshire is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Letchworth. The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the amalgamation of the urban districts of Baldock, Hitchin, Letchworth, and Roysto ...

, England. It sits just off the Great North Road between Baldock and

Biggleswade Biggleswade ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Central Bedfordshire in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the River Ivel, 11 miles (18 km) south-east of Bedford. Its population was 16,551 in the 2011 United Kingdom census, and its e ...

. It has a

village hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

, a park, a pub, a small

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

, a

bus stop A bus stop is a place where buses stop for passengers to get on and off the bus. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage, where stops at busy locations may have shelters, seating, and possibly electronic passenger ...

and a

post box A post box (British English; also written postbox; also known as pillar box), also known as a collection box, mailbox, letter box or drop box (American English) is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail inten ...

. The population at the 2011 Census was 313.

History and Geography

The name of the village has variously been recorded as Haingesteworde, Hainsteworde, Hamsteworde (in the 11th century); Hingslewurd (12th century); Hengsteworth, Hyngstrigge, Heynceworth (13th century); Hangteworth, Hynxworth (14th century); Hyggextworth, Hyngxtworth (15th century); and Henxworth (16th century). The parish of Hinxworth is in the extreme north of the county on the border with

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

. It lies low, the ground nowhere rising more than above mean sea level. The ancient track called

The Ridgeway The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countryside The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ...

crosses the low land to the east of the parish, running parallel with the

River Rhee The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distance from Cambridge to ...

, which forms the north-east boundary. The area of the parish is , most of which is arable land, the remainder woodland and pasture. The soil is

loam Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand ( particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–si ...

and blue

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

, the subsoil varies. The chief crops are

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

, field

beans A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes thr ...

and

oilseed rape Rapeseed (''Brassica napus ''subsp.'' napus''), also known as rape, or oilseed rape, is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae (mustard or cabbage family), cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed, which naturally contains a ...

. Coprolites have been dug in the parish and are still to be found. An Act authorizing enclosure of the common fields was passed in 1802 and the award was made in 1806. The nearest railway stations are Baldock, to the south and Ashwell to the southeast, both on the Hitchin and Cambridge branch of the Great Northern Railway. The Great North Road skirts the parish on the west and forms its southwest boundary. Not far from this road, on the borders of Hinxworth and Caldecote, Roman remains were discovered in about 1720 by workmen who were digging there for gravel with which to repair the road. These included several human bodies, urns,

paterae In the material culture of classical antiquity, a ''phiale'' ( ) or ''patera'' () is a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl. It often has a bulbous indentation (''omphalos'', "bellybutton") in the center underside to facilitate holding it, i ...

and other objects, with a Danish or Dutch coin. In 1810 a further find of great interest was made in the parish of two rare Greek coins or medals, one of Mithridates King of Pontus, and the other of

Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus ( /ˈpɜːrsiəs, -sjuːs/; Greek: Περσεύς, translit. Perseús) is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. He was, alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon, the greatest Greek hero and slayer ...

King of

Macedon Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled ...

ia, both very well preserved. Near the River Rhee in the north of the parish and not far from the camp at Arbury Banks or Harboro, and near the Ridgeway, a hoard of more than 500 Roman coins was discovered. Near them were found other Roman remains. The village of Hinxworth lies a mile and a half to the east of the Roman road, with which it is connected by roads leading northwest and southwest, the former continuing to Ashwell. The 14th century St Nicholas' church and former rectory stand on the southeast of the angle formed by the road to Ashwell and that leading southwest to the Roman road, and the village lies a little to the northwest of the church. At the beginning of the 18th century it had only thirty-five houses, of which three were

almshouses An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certai ...

. Hinxworth is home to 'Hinxworth Archers', one of the few

Archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In ...

clubs in the area. The

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals ...

Hinxworth Place is about half a mile southwest of the village.

Governance

Hinxworth has three tiers of local government at parish, district and county level: Hinxworth Parish Council, North Hertfordshire District Council, and

Hertfordshire County Council Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England, the United Kingdom. After the 2021 election, it consists of 78 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, ...

. Hinxworth is an

ancient parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. ...

, and it was part of the

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

Odsey Odsey is a hamlet in Cambridgeshire close to the border with Hertfordshire and near the town of Baldock. It contains a hotel and has a main-line railway station ( Ashwell and Morden) which services the three closest villages: Ashwell, Steeple M ...

. Hinxworth was included in the

Royston Royston may refer to: Places Australia *Royston, Queensland, a rural locality Canada * Royston, British Columbia, a small hamlet England *Royston, Hertfordshire, a town and civil parish, formerly partly in Cambridgeshire * Royston, South Yorks ...

Poor Law Union from 1835. The

Local Government Act 1894 The Local Government Act 1894 (56 & 57 Vict. c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level un ...

created

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

and district councils. Hinxworth was included in

Ashwell Rural District Ashwell Rural District was a rural district in Hertfordshire, England from 1894 to 1935, covering an area in the north-east of the county. Evolution The district had its origins in the Royston Rural Sanitary District. This had been created u ...

from 28 December 1894. Despite the name, Ashwell Rural District Council was based in the town of Royston. Hinxworth's population at the time was below threshold to be given a parish council, and so it had a

parish meeting A parish meeting, in England, is a meeting to which all the electors in a civil parish are entitled to attend. In some cases, where a parish or group of parishes has fewer than 200 electors, the parish meeting can take on the role of a parish cou ...

to take over the secular functions of the parish

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

. A parish council was established by 1939. Ashwell Rural District was abolished in 1935, becoming part of

Hitchin Rural District Hitchin Rural District was a rural district in Hertfordshire, England from 1894 to 1974, covering an area in the north of the county. Evolution The district had its origins in the Hitchin Rural Sanitary District. This had been created under ...

, which in turn was abolished in 1974, becoming part of

Notable residents

The author

Monica Dickens Monica Enid Dickens, MBE (10 May 1915 – 25 December 1992) was an English writer, the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Biography Known as "Monty" to her family and friends, she was born into an upper-middle-class London family to Henr ...

lived in a cottage in the village for four years from 1947 to 1951. Here she wrote her

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

s ''Flowers on the Grass'' (1949) and ''

My Turn to Make the Tea ''My Turn to Make the Tea'' is the third semi-autobiographical book by the British author Monica Dickens. First published in 1951 by Michael Joseph (publisher), Michael Joseph, the book relates Dickens' time working as a junior reporter on the '' ...

'' (1951), the latter based on her experiences as a

reporter A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

working on the ''Hertfordshire Express'' in

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842. History Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people, a tribe holding ...

. While in Hinxworth she was the Treasurer of the annual Ashwell Horse Show and President of the Hinxworth Cricket Club, having bought maroon blazers for all the team, the

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per' ...

and the Club Secretary.Dickens, op. cit., pg 126 The notable 16/17th century land owner Sir Thomas Golding of Poslingford, Suffolk also owned lands at Hinxworth. The sculptor John W Mills currently lives in Hinxworth.

Notes

External links

Hinxworth and Edworth Village Hall WebsiteHinxworth Parish CouncilHinxworth Archers websiteHinxworth Bus ServiceAshwell & Morden Train TimetableBaldock Train Timetable
{{authority control Villages in Hertfordshire Civil parishes in Hertfordshire North Hertfordshire District