Broxbourne
Encyclopedia
Broxbourne is a commuter town
Commuter town
A commuter town is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the workforce commutes out to earn their livelihood. Many commuter towns act as suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many suburbs are commuter towns...

 in the Broxbourne
Broxbourne (borough)
Broxbourne is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Cheshunt, other towns include Broxbourne, Hoddesdon and Waltham Cross. The eastern boundary of the district is the River Lea...

 borough of Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

 in the East of England
East of England
The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. It was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Essex has the highest population in the region.Its...

 with a population of 13,298 in 2001.

It is located 17.1 miles (27.5 km) north north-east of Charing Cross
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...

 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and about a mile (1.6 km) north of Wormley
Wormley, Hertfordshire
Wormley is a village in Hertfordshire, England. It is within the Borough of Broxbourne. The village is part of the census ward of Wormley and Turnford, which has a population of 8,146...

 and south of Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon is a town in the English county of Hertfordshire, situated in the Lea Valley. The town grew up as a coaching stop on the route between Cambridge and London. It is located southeast of Hertford, north of Waltham Cross and southwest of Bishop's Stortford. At its height during the 18th...

. The town is near to the River Lea which forms the boundary with Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 and is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north of the M25 motorway
M25 motorway
The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...

. West of the town are Broxbourne Woods
Wormley-Hoddesdonpark Wood North
Wormley-Hoddesdonpark Wood North is a 146.3 hectare is a woodland area in Hertfordshire which has been designated as a biological and geological site of Special Scientific Interest. The site was notified in 1986 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and is currently managed by the Country...

, a National Nature Reserve
National Nature Reserves in England
National Nature Reserves in England are managed by Natural England and are key places for wildlife and natural features in England. They were established to protect the most important areas of habitat and of geological formations...

.

The Prime Meridian
Prime Meridian
The Prime Meridian is the meridian at which the longitude is defined to be 0°.The Prime Meridian and its opposite the 180th meridian , which the International Date Line generally follows, form a great circle that divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.An international...

 passes to the east of Broxbourne.

History

Broxbourne grew up on the Great Cambridge Road, now known as the A10. A number of old houses and inns dating from the 16th to the 19th century still line the High Street (now the A1170). The Manor of Broxbourne is described in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

, which mentions Broxbourne Mill
Broxbourne Mill
Broxbourne Mill is located at the Old Mill and Meadows Site Lee Valley Park, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.- History :A mill stood here for 900 hundred years before being destroyed by fire on October 1, 1949. It is the only mill in this area to be mentioned in the Domesday Book 1086 . The first known...

. The manor was held in the time of Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....

 by Stigand
Stigand
Stigand was an English churchman in pre-Norman Conquest England. Although his birthdate is unknown, by 1020, he was serving as a royal chaplain and advisor. He was named Bishop of Elmham in 1043, and then later Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of Canterbury...

, the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...

, but had passed into Norman hands following the Conquest. King John granted the manor to the Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

s until the Dissolution, when it passed to John Cock, after whose family Cock Lane is named.

The parish church of St Augustine
Augustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597...

 was entirely rebuilt in the 15th century, although a 12th-century Purbeck marble
Purbeck Marble
Purbeck Marble is a fossiliferous limestone quarried in the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in south-east Dorset, England.It is one of many kinds of Purbeck Limestone, deposited in the late Jurassic or early Cretaceous periods....

 font
Baptismal font
A baptismal font is an article of church furniture or a fixture used for the baptism of children and adults.-Aspersion and affusion fonts:...

 survives. The interior has a number of monuments and brass
Monumental brass
Monumental brass is a species of engraved sepulchral memorial which in the early part of the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional monuments and effigies carved in stone or wood...

es dating from the 15th to the 19th century. The three stage tower has a belfry with a peal
Ring of bells
"Ring of bells" is a term most often applied to a set of bells hung in the English style, typically for change ringing...

 of eight bells, three of which are dated 1615.

The New River
New River (England)
The New River is an artificial waterway in England, opened in 1613 to supply London with fresh drinking water taken from the River Lea and from Amwell Springs , and other springs and wells along its course....

 which passes through the centre of the town, was constructed in the early 17th century. Broxbourne railway station
Broxbourne railway station
Broxbourne railway station, opened in 1840, serves Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, England. It is on the West Anglia Main Line, and train services are provided by National Express East Anglia, who also manage the station.-History:...

 was built in 1840. A terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

 works was opened soon afterwards by James Pulham and Son
James Pulham and Son
James Pulham and Son was a firm of Victorian landscape gardeners and terracotta manufacturers which exhibited and won medals at London's Great Exhibition of 1851 and 1862 International Exhibition.-History:...

, who specialised in creating artificial rock garden features; some of their work survives in the gardens at Sandringham House
Sandringham House
Sandringham House is a country house on of land near the village of Sandringham in Norfolk, England. The house is privately owned by the British Royal Family and is located on the royal Sandringham Estate, which lies within the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.-History and current...

 and Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...

.

Local government

Broxbourne was a civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in the Ware Rural District from 1894 to 1935. In the latter year the more heavily populated eastern end of the parish was added to the Hoddesdon Urban District, while the rural western portion remained in Ware Rural District, forming part of the civil parish of Brickendon Liberty.

The former area of Hoddesdon Urban District merged with that of Cheshunt Urban District to form the Borough of Broxbourne
Broxbourne (borough)
Broxbourne is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Cheshunt, other towns include Broxbourne, Hoddesdon and Waltham Cross. The eastern boundary of the district is the River Lea...

 in 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....

.

Broxbourne now forms one of thirteen wards of the borough, returning three councillors.

Business

The Borough of Broxbourne at Park Plaza, Waltham Cross
Waltham Cross
Waltham Cross is the most southeasterly town in Hertfordshire, England. It is 12 miles from the City of London and immediately north of the M25 motorway, forming part of the Greater London Urban Area and London commuter belt. Part of Waltham Cross is located within Greater London.-Geography:It is...

 is home to the world's largest printing plant, which produces publications for News International
News International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....

 including The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...

, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

and the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...

.
Employing 200 people on a 23 acres (93,077.8 m²) site to produce 86,000 newspapers per hour on each of its twelve printing presses (a total capacity of over 1,000,000 newspapers per hour), the plant cost £187 million (part of a £650m initiative including plants in Knowsley, near Liverpool, and Motherwell, near Glasgow) and replaced the News International press in Wapping
Wapping
Wapping is a place in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets which forms part of the Docklands to the east of the City of London. It is situated between the north bank of the River Thames and the ancient thoroughfare simply called The Highway...

.

2012 Summer Olympics

As part of the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 2012 Summer Olympics
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...

, Spitalbrook was chosen as the venue for whitewater
Whitewater
Whitewater is formed in a rapid, when a river's gradient increases enough to disturb its laminar flow and create turbulence, i.e. form a bubbly, or aerated and unstable current; the frothy water appears white...

 canoe and kayak slalom events. On 8 October 2007 the Olympic Delivery Authority
Olympic Delivery Authority
The Olympic Delivery Authority is the statutory corporation responsible for ensuring delivery of venues, infrastructure and legacy for the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in London...

 (ODA) announced that due to contamination risks at the planned Spitalbrook site, an alternative site six miles (10 km) south was being investigated. Subsequently on 16 April 2008 it was announced that the venue would be built at nearby Waltham Cross and situated on what was (at the time of the relevant press release) the overflow car park for the showground at the River Lee Country Park
River Lee Country Park
The River Lee Country Park is located in the Lee Valley Park and is managed by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. Covering acres on either side of the River Lee Navigation between Waltham Abbey and Broxbourne...

. The venue was initially known as Broxbourne White Water Canoe Centre and later officially named Lee Valley White Water Centre.
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