Walk Across The Road To Common Land
You are now standing on what used to be COMMON LAND. All the land that you can see - in front of you and to your right - used to belong to the Lord of the Manor who lived in Pingelsgate House which became the Manor House in 1850.
The Lord of the Manor used to allow the villagers to graze their animals here, but there were rules and regulations. It was often children or women who looked after the animals on the common. Pigs had to be yoked together and had rings in their noses. Only 2 to 4 sheep could be grazed depending on the financial status of the villager and later on it was forbidden to graze geese because they spoiled the grass for grazing.
There were not so many trees as there are now and they were not as tall. Five of each kind of tree were planted about 100 years before Victoria became Queen. So for hundreds of years there was a lot of gorse and bracken. With permission, the people could cut the bracken and use it for bedding for their animals instead of hay. Fallen branches were gathered for firewood.
The pond was an important place and it was much more open than it is now.
With permission, people could take their animals there to drink water and in hot, dry weather people collected the water in barrels, by horse and cart, to use in their homes.
Carters also drove their horses and carts into the pond so that the wooden wheels could soak up the water. The wood swelled and the metal bands stayed on the rims of the wheels.
The water was also good for soothing the horses’ hooves.
In winter the pond froze over and people skated on it!
The first recorded cricket match was played in 1844 with the permission of the Lord of the Manor.
Walk across the Common diagonally to the left
Then walk along the track beside the road until you come to the Manor House which you can easily recognise because it looks very impressive with the iron railings in front of it. It was built in 1591 by a clergyman who came from London.
The back is quite different from the front, as you will see from the photograph which shows the six Tudor gables. The front used to be the same until a new frontage was built in 1714, and that was over 100 years before Victoria became Queen.
This photograph shows you what the house would have looked like if Queen Victoria had gone to stay there. The side wings were added in 1910 after Queen Victoria had died.
Chipperfield was part of Kings Langley until 1957. Before the church was built in 1838, Chipperfield villagers went to Kings Langley church.
The Lord of the Manor of Kings Langley used to live in Kings Langley but it was a great day for this village when Robert Blackwell inherited the title, the Kings Langley Manor House and Pingelsgate House in Chipperfield in 1850. He knocked down the Manor House in Kings Langley and came to live in Chipperfield at Pingelsgate House, which he re-named the Manor House.