Letchworth

Sister cities

• Wissen
• Kristiansand
• Chagny

History

The area now occupied by Letchworth has been inhabited since prehistoric times. A late Bronze Age hill fort, thought to date from , stood on Wilbury Hill, beside the ancient road of Icknield Way. The hill fort was refortified in the Middle Iron Age, and appears to have been occupied until the Roman conquest of Britain. Evidence for Bronze Age, Romano-British and late Iron Age settlement has also been found in the fields between Norton village and the A1. By the time of the Norman Conquest, Letchworth was established as a village. The name is derived from the Old English "lycce weorth", meaning a farm inside a fence or enclosure. It appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Leceworde", when it was described as having nine households of villagers, four cottagers, one slave and one priest. The presence of the priest suggests that Letchworth was by that time a parish. Letchworth's parish church was built in the 12th century, but likely on the site of an earlier building. The original dedication of the church is unknown, but it was rededicated to St Mary during the First World War. The village was along Letchworth Lane, stretching from St Mary's and the adjoining medieval manor house of Letchworth Hall up to the staggered crossroads of Letchworth Lane, Hitchin Road, Baldock Road and Spring Road. Letchworth was a relatively small parish, having a population in 1801 of 67, rising to 96 by 1901. In 1898, the social reformer Ebenezer Howard wrote To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (republished in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-morrow), in which he advocated the construction of a new kind of town, which he called a "garden city". The idea was summed up in a diagram called the "Three Magnets", showing how the mixed advantages and disadvantages of town or country living…

Geography

Letchworth experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom. Letchworth was struck by an F1/T2 tornado on 23 November 1981, as part of the record-breaking nationwide tornado outbreak on that day. Letchworth Garden City is home to one of the UK's largest colonies of black squirrels, which were first recorded in Letchworth in 1912. The origin of the colony is unclear, but a 2014 study at Anglia Ruskin University concluded that the squirrels are a variation of the common North American grey squirrel with a faulty pigment gene. The black squirrel is now a relatively common sight across Letchworth and the surrounding area. There are also muntjac deer in the town, living principally on Norton Common, but also seen elsewhere.

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  15,335
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,836
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,579
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  11,312
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,640
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  10,503
• European Goldfinch

  Carduelis carduelis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,183
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  10,092

Most recent

• M 3.1 — 2020-09-22
  5 km N of Aylesbury, United Kingdom
• M 3.9 — 2020-09-08
  2 km WSW of Pitstone, United Kingdom
• M 3.3 — 2019-02-27
  3 km SE of Dorking, United Kingdom
• M 2.8 — 2018-07-05
  1 km S of Ewhurst, United Kingdom
• M 2.6 — 2018-06-27
  5 km W of Capel, United Kingdom
• M 2.7 — 2018-04-01
  4 km E of Holmwood, United Kingdom