Digswell

Digswell is a village in the civil parish of Welwyn, in the Welwyn Hatfield district, in the English county of Hertfordshire which is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book. The population of the urban area of Digswell in the 2011 Census was 1,632. Digswell's name may be derived from Deacon's Well. There were two manors, with two water mills, much land under plough, and a large area of woodland. From 1835 the parish of Digswell was included in the Welwyn poor law union, and from 1894 the parish was part of the Welwyn Rural District. The 1911 census recorded the parish of Digswell as covering 1,674 acres (677 hectares) and having a population of 401. The small village of Digswell comprised the parish church of St John the Evangelist (13th century, much altered), the 19th century Digswell House (built on the site of a much earlier residence) and a few nearby houses. There were other small hamlets in the parish, notably at Digswell Water on the River Mimram. The parish of Digswell also included Welwyn railway station which opened in 1850 on the Great Northern Railway to serve the village of Welwyn, just over a mile to the west of the station. In the early 20th century an area called "High Welwyn" began to develop around the railway station. On 30 May 1919 part of the estate once belonging to Lord Cowper of Panshanger was bought at auction by a group of pioneers of the Garden city movement including Ebenezer Howard. Adjoining land was purchased later that year, and a company called Welwyn Garden City Limited was formed on 20 April 1920 with the aim of building a new garden city. The land earmarked for the town straddled the parishes of Hatfield, Welwyn, Tewin and Digswell. A new civil parish called Welwyn Garden City was created on 1 October 1921 from parts of these four parishes. Digswell parish ceded 934 acres (378 hectares) to the new parish, representing over half its area, with the transferred territory including the original Digswell village. The remaining Digswell…