Wallington is a small 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 ...

in the

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 ...

district, in the county of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

, England, near the town of Baldock. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 150. Nearby villages include

Rushden Rushden is a market town and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, England, around east of Northampton. The parish is on the border with Bedfordshire, north of Bedford. The parish of Rushden covers an area of some . The population of Rushd ...

and Sandon. It shares a parish council with Rushden. Th
Church of St Mary
is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

lying at the southern end of the village. The nave, west tower and windows date from the mid-15th Century. The chancel was rebuilt in 1864. The

Icknield Way Path Icknield is a parliamentary ward, of the Luton district, in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The ward takes its name from the Icknield Way, a pre-Roman road which passes through Luton. Situated towards the northeast of Luton, the ward is ...

passes through the village on its 110-mile journey from Ivinghoe Beacon in Buckinghamshire to Knettishall Heath in Suffolk. File:StMaryChurchWallingtonHertz.jpg, Interior view. Church of St Mary, Wallington. File:No 2 Kits Lane, Wallington 2020-07-18.jpg, No 2 Kits Lane, Wallington. George Orwell residence circa 1936–1940 File:WallingtonHertzUKmap.jpg, Map of Wallington File:WallingtonHertzUKbooklets.jpg, Booklets available at St Mary Church in 2013.

George Orwell

The author

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalit ...

lived in a small cottage at no 2 Kits Lane, known as The Stores, in the village from 1936 to 1940, and at occasional weekends (when he was otherwise mainly in London) until he gave up the lease on the cottage in 1947. A commemorative plaque was placed there in 1989 by Hertfordshire County Council. This plaque is however not accurate, in that it refers to Orwell living at the Stores until 1940, whereas he had the lease until April 1947, and did stay at the house from time to time until at least his wife Eileen's death (1945). He had married his first wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy at the village church on 9 June 1936. Orwell wrote his notable book ''

Animal Farm ''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to c ...

'' in 1944 probably much of it while he was at the village and certainly drew on his experiences there for inspiration, especially Manor Farm and The Great Barn. The farm in the village is, as in the book called Manor Farm.''George Orwell in Wallington'', Coutts Smith, Jim ; Wallington Church Preservation Trust, 2010, (reprint of article originally in ''A North Hertfordshire Miscellany'', 1995, North Hertfordshire Villages Research Group) Other notable books that he wrote while he lived in the village include ''

Homage to Catalonia ''Homage to Catalonia'' is George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations fighting in the Spanish Civil War for the POUM militia of the Republican army. Published in 1938 (about a year before the war ended) with little c ...

'', and ''

The Road to Wigan Pier ''The Road to Wigan Pier'' is a book by the English writer George Orwell, first published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his sociological investigations of the bleak living conditions among the working class in Lancashire and Yor ...

'' (which he had largely researched before he moved to Wallington, but which was written and published after his arrival.) Many of his notable essays, reviews and articles in various journals and collections, were also written during this period. In 2011 and 2012 the village was involved in the George Orwell Festival, of Letchworth and Wallington.

References

External links

Wallington Village Website

The George Orwell Festival
* Church of St Mary, Wallington a
British Listed Buildings

Orwell's Life in Wallington
Villages in Hertfordshire Civil parishes in Hertfordshire {{hertfordshire-geo-stub