Much Hadham

Much Hadham, formerly known as Great Hadham, is a village and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire, England. The parish of Much Hadham contains the hamlets of Perry Green and Green Tye, as well as the village of Much Hadham itself. It covers. The village of Much Hadham is situated midway between Ware and Bishop's Stortford. The population of the parish was recorded as 2,862 in the 2011 census, an increase from 1,994 in 2001.HistoryThe name "Hadham" probably derives from Old English words meaning "Heath homestead". The affix "Much" comes from the Old English "mycel", meaning "great". The name changed around the time of the Civil War.The parish has been occupied since the Roman period. There were pottery kilns in the parish in the Roman period, and a Roman coin hoard has been found nearby.Written records of Much Hadham go back to the time of King Edgar. The village was a possession of the Bishops of London before the Norman Conquest, and it appears in the Domesday Book as "Hadham". The parish church was built from 1225–1450. The village was a staging point on the road from London to Cambridge and Newmarket, and the Olde Red Lion Inn, built in 15th century to serve this traffic, still survives in the village.The Bishop's Palace was used as an asylum from 1817–1863.During the First World War, there was a British Red Cross/Order of St. John auxiliary hospital in Much Hadham. Today, a plaque on the front of Woodham House commemorates this.