Flaunden
In 1973 Flaunden became part of the new borough of Dacorum, which is named after an ancient Saxon hundred of the same name.
Adjacent Parishes: Bovingdon, Chenies & Latimer(Buckinghamshire), Chesham (Buckinghamshire), Sarratt
Flaunden was in the Hemel Hempstead Union
Map from Hemel Hempstead Rural District Official Guide (circa 1972)
Flaunden is a village and parish on the Buckinghamshire border of the county, 4 miles south-west from Boxmoor station on the London and North Western railway, 8 miles north-west from Watford and 6 south-west from Hemel Hempstead, in the Western Division of the county, Dacorum petty sessional division and hundred, Hemel Hempstead union, Chesham county court district, and in the rural deanery of Amersham, archdeaconry of Buckingham and diocese of Oxford, being the only parish in the county not in the diocese of St Albans.
The church of St Mary Magdalene, erected in 1838, chiefly at the cost of the Rev. Samuel King, a former rector, is a plain structure of flint with brick quoins and dressings, and said to have been the first church built by the late Sir Gilbert Scott kt. R.A.; it consists of a nave only, with south porch, vestry, and a western turret containing one bell ... the font and the bell and the floor tiles in the porch were brought from the old church, the slight ruins of which are still standing within a fir plantation in the valley between Latimer and Chenies; it was a cruciform building and very small. ...
Kelly's Directory for Hertfordshire, 1912
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A notice recording the erection of the new church in 1838. (Picture by Dave Stables)
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AMONG the few Hertfordshire churches which are in ruins, not the least interesting is the little one of Flaunden, situated on the banks of the Chess River, tucked away and nearly hidden in a small clump of fir trees some distance from the road. Its peculiar interest is its somewhat unusual plan, the design of which is in the form of a Greek cross, having the distance east to west (about thirty-six feet) practically the same as that north to south across the transept. The church probably dates from about 1230 and was dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene; it is now, however, in a ruinous condition, the roof and wooden tower having quite disappeared. The ivy-clad north and west walls retain much of their original height, and up to recently showed traces of early mural painting. There is a small fourteenth century doorway in the north wall and a picturesque fifteenth-century three-light window in the south wall. ... ... |
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The Bricklayers Arms from Hemel Hempstead Rural District Official Guide
A transcript of the 1841 census is available on Shaun Burgin's web site.
Web site: Gazette - Important local History pages |
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Flaunden No 5 One of a number of pictures of the village by A A Durrah of Rickmansworth possibly 1920s |
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Methodists in Flaunden in 1825 Harriett Glenister, Thomas Harris, Charlotte Harris, Ann Smith, John Brown, Thos. Woodbridge, Sarah Fountain, Louisa Edmonds, Wm. Harris, William Sexton. The Flaunden Society, with its ten members in 1825, was met by the preacher on the Sunday. In 1829 the Society Stewards were Mr. Harris and Mr. Breed. ]n June, 1834, Mr. Eames was the Class Leader, with a membership of twenty-one, and he acted as Society Steward. Shortly afterwards, his name disappears, Mr. Thomas Harris becoming leader, but, in 1839, the Society had become extinct. See Methodism in the city of the Proto-Martyr and the St Albans Circuit |
See also Dacorum and Vital Records
If you know of other books, websites, etc, relating to this place, please tell me.
Page updated December 2007
