{{Short description|Village in Hertfordshire, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}} {{Use British English|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox UK place |country = England |coordinates = {{coord|51.93217|-0.23387|display=inline,title}} |population= 1,002 |population_ref= (Built up area, 2022 estimate)<ref name=bua>{{cite web |title=Population estimates - small area (2021 based) by single year of age - England and Wales |url=https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/advanced.aspx |website=NOMIS |publisher=Office for National Statistics |access-date=19 April 2025}} To get data for individual built-up areas, query the 'Population Estimates / Projections' dataset, then the 'Small area (2021 based) by single year of age - England and Wales' and then choose '2022 built-up areas' for the geography.</ref> |civil_parish=[[Wymondley]] |shire_district= [[North Hertfordshire]] |shire_county = [[Hertfordshire]] |region= East of England |constituency_westminster= [[Hitchin (UK Parliament constituency)|Hitchin]] |post_town= Hitchin |postcode_district = SG4 |postcode_area= SG |dial_code= 01438 |os_grid_reference= TL216274 |static_image_name = St Mary, Little Wymondley - geograph.org.uk - 4654756.jpg |static_image_caption= St Mary's Church, Little Wymondley }}
'''Little Wymondley''' is a village in the parish of [[Wymondley]], in the [[North Hertfordshire]] district of [[Hertfordshire]], England. It lies {{convert|2|miles|km|0}} south-east of [[Hitchin]], its [[post town]], and a similar distance north-west of [[Stevenage]]. The built-up area of Little Wymondley had an estimated population of 1,002 in 2022.<ref name=bua/> Despite the names, Little Wymondley is now larger than its neighbour [[Great Wymondley]].
==History== The [[Domesday Book]] of 1086 records 58 households at Wymondley, with the land being divided between four owners.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Powell-Smith |first1=Anna |title=[Great and Little] Wymondley |url=https://opendomesday.org/place/XX0000/great-and-little-wymondley/ |website=Open Domesday |access-date=6 May 2025}}</ref> It does not distinguish between Little Wymondley and Great Wymondley, but later historians have deduced that the lands Robert Gernon and [[Odo of Bayeux]] correspond to Little Wymondley,<ref name=LittleVCH>{{cite book |editor1-last=Page |editor1-first=William |title=A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 3 |date=1912 |publisher=Victoria County History |location=London |pages=185–191 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol3/pp185-191 |access-date=6 May 2025}}</ref> whilst the lands of Gosbert of Beauvais and those held directly by [[William the Conqueror|King William]] were Great Wymondley.<ref name=GreatVCH>{{cite book |editor1-last=Page |editor1-first=William |title=A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 3 |date=1912 |publisher=Victoria County History |location=London |pages=181–185 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol3/pp181-185 |access-date=6 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Fitzpatrick-Matthews |first=Keith |date=2020 |title=The Archaeology of the Wymondleys |url=https://northhertsmuseum.org/the-archaeology-of-the-wymondleys/}}</ref>
[[File:Wymondley House - geograph.org.uk - 30715.jpg|thumb|left|Wymondley House]] Wymondley was anciently part of the parish of Hitchin. There was a church at Great Wymondley by the 12th century, which was originally a [[chapel of ease]] to [[St Mary's Church, Hitchin]]. The church at Great Wymondley had its own clergy by the early 13th century and Great Wymondley was thereafter treated as a separate parish, although it retained some ties to Hitchin until the [[Reformation]] in the 16th century.<ref name=GreatVCH/> Around the same time that Great Wymondley became a parish, a church was also built at Little Wymondley, which had become a separate parish by 1235.<ref name=LittleVCH/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Youngs |first1=Frederic |title=Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England: Volume I |date=1979 |publisher=Royal Historical Society |location=London |isbn=0 901050 67 9 |page=245}}</ref> The boundary between the two parishes of Great Wymondley and Little Wymondley was complex, as was often the case with parishes created at this time out of a previously united territory.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Winchester |first1=Angus |title=Discovering Parish Boundaries |date=2000 |publisher=Shire Publications |location=Princes Risborough |isbn=0 7478 0470 2 |pages=13–20}}</ref> Both parishes had detached parcels of land in the area around Titmore Green and Todds Green at the southern end of the old Wymondley territory.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hertfordshire Sheet XII |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/102343280 |website=National Library of Scotland |publisher=Ordnance Survey |access-date=6 May 2025 |date=1884}}</ref>
The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Little Wymondley, is a [[Grade II* listed buildings in Hertfordshire|Grade II* listed]] building.<ref name="HE">{{Cite web |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1347444 |title=Church of St Mary the Virgin}}</ref>
Little Wymondley has several interesting houses, including the [[moat]]ed Bury of the 16th and 17th centuries, the fine 17th-century Hall, the late Georgian Wymondley House, and Wymondley Priory, an early 13th-century foundation turned into a house in the 16th and 17th centuries.
From 1799 until 1832/33, Wymondley House at Little Wymondley was the location of a [[dissenting academies|dissenting academy]] for the education of future [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] ministers. The academy went under various names, including [[Wymondley College]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Wymondley Academy (1799-1833)|url=https://dissacad.english.qmul.ac.uk/sample1.php?parameter=academyretrieve&alpha=172|work=Dissenting Academies Online|publisher=Queen Mary Centre for Religion and Literature in English|accessdate=2019-02-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter=Parishes: Little Wymondley |title=A History of the County of Hertford |volume=3 |editor-first=William |editor-last=Page |year=1912 |pages=185–191 |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol3/pp185-191}}</ref>
==Services== [[File:Wymondley School.jpg|thumb|left|Wymondley JMI School, Siccut Road]] The village has a primary school, Wymondley JMI School, which serves both Little Wymondley and neighbouring Great Wymondley.<ref>{{cite web |title=Wymondley Junior Mixed and Infant School |url=https://www.wymondley.herts.sch.uk/ |access-date=4 May 2025}}</ref>
[[File:'The Bucks Head' inn on Stevenage Road - geograph.org.uk - 1317052.jpg|thumb|The Bucks Head]] There are two public houses, both on Stevenage Road, being the Plume of Feathers and the Bucks Head.
==Governance== Little Wymondley forms part of the parish of Wymondley. There are three tiers of local government covering Wymondley, at [[Parish council (England)|parish]], [[non-metropolitan district|district]], and [[non-metropolitan county|county]] level: Wymondley Parish Council, [[North Hertfordshire District Council]], and [[Hertfordshire County Council]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Wymondley Parish Council |url=https://wymondleypc.org.uk/ |access-date=30 April 2025}}</ref>
The civil parishes of Little Wymondley and Great Wymondley were merged into a single parish called Wymondley in 1937.<ref>{{cite web |title=Little Wymondley Ancient Parish / Civil Parish |url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10192353 |website=A Vision of Britain through Time |publisher=GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth |access-date=6 May 2025}}</ref> In 1931 (the last census before the abolition of the civil parish), Little Wymondley had a population of 445.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10192353/cube/TOT_POP|title=Population statistics Little Wymondley AP/CP through time|publisher=[[A Vision of Britain through Time]]|accessdate=1 November 2022}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline|Little Wymondley}}
*[http://www.wymondleybaptist.org.uk/ Wymondley Baptist Church] *{{official website|http://www.wymondley.com}}
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[[Category:Villages in Hertfordshire]] [[Category:Former civil parishes in Hertfordshire]] [[Category:North Hertfordshire District]]