Charlton, Hertfordshire

Charlton is a hamlet in the county of Hertfordshire, in the East of England. It is a component hamlet of the market town of Hitchin, forming a part of the Hitchin Priory ward. Its rural character is protected as a Conservation Area. Situated east of the Chilterns AONB, it lies 30 miles north of London.

Charlton
Charlton
Location within Hertfordshire
Population50 (2020 estimate)
OS grid referenceTL178280
• London30 mi (48 km)
Shire county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townHITCHIN
Postcode districtSG5
Dialling code01462
UK Parliament

The manor of Charlton is mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Ilbert of Hitchin. It later came into the possession of the Knights Templar, and then by the Knights Hospitaller with the manor of Temple Dinsley until the suppression of the latter order. The manor subsequently came to Edward Pulter, who sold it in 1582 to Ralph Radcliffe from which time it was part of the property of Hitchin Priory.[1]

Charlton House is a Grade II listed building and the birthplace of inventor Henry Bessemer in 1813.[2] At the time his father, Anthony Bessemer, operated a type foundry in the village.[3][4] The mill-wheel was adapted by his grandfather to power a small foundry. The water-mill was therefore converted to a foundry during the occupancy of the Bessemer family and back to a mill again afterwards.[5] There are remains of a windmill less than half a mile from the Windmill Pub from which it may have taken its name. There was, until the 1970s, also a water-wheel in the mill-race in the yard of Wellhead Farm.

According to an article by Peter Harkness in Vol 1, No 1 of "Old Hitchin Life" the Harkness family's now world-famous rose-nursery was, in the late 19th century, based in Charlton as well as Bedale, in Yorkshire, with Robert Harkness moving into Charlton House (Bessemer's birthplace) in 1895.

References
  1. 'Hitchin: Introduction and manors', A History of the County of Hertford: volume 3 (1912), pp. 3-12. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43569
  2. "Charlton House, Hitchin". Daily Telegraph.
  3. Talbot Baines Reed (1887). A History of the Old English Letter Foundries: With Notes, Historical and Bibliographical, on the Rise and Progress of English Typography. E. Stock. pp. 359–360.
  4. "A. Bessemer's Specimen of Printing Types, 1830". Journal of the Printing Historical Society. 5.
  5. Sir Henry Bessemer Inventor & Engineer Archived 2013-01-19 at the Wayback Machine, Accessed 18 May 2012


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