Bovingdon

Bovingdon
Bovingdon High Street looking north with The Bell public house opposite
OS grid reference	TL013037
District	Dacorum
Shire county	Hertfordshire
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Postcode district	HP3
Dialling code	01442
Police	Hertfordshire
Fire	Hertfordshire
Ambulance	East of England
UK Parliament	South West Hertfordshire

Bovingdon is a large village in the Chiltern Hills, in Hertfordshire, England, close to the town of Hemel Hempstead and within the local authority area of Dacorum. It forms the largest part of the ward of Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield, which had a population of 8,819 at the 2001 census.

Description

St Lawrence Church, Bovingdon

The name is first mentioned in deeds from 1200 as Bovyndon. It could originate from Old English Bufan dune meaning "above the down" or from Bofa's down, the down belonging to Bofa.

It is located near the border to Buckinghamshire.

St Lawrence Church was built in 1845 by Talbot Bury. The churchyard is the second largest in Hertfordshire and includes an avenue of clipped yew trees. The village also includes some old cottages. There are two pubs in the village centre, The Bull and The Bell. A third, the Wheatsheaf, is now closed.

The village is sometimes confused with Bovington Camp in Dorset. Halfpenny Green Airfield in Shropshire was renamed from Bobbington, the name of the local village, during WWII after a B-17 tried to land there when the crew became lost.

The village is known for its affluence and exclusivity, with some notable residents (below). As being a medieval village, it is full of cottages and old chapel houses. The village is located between Watford and Hemel Hempstead.

Bovingdon airfield

Next to Bovingdon is the disused former World War II, Eighth Air Force and post-war Royal Air Force airfield, RAF Bovingdon.

The airfield was built in 1942. Between 1943 and 1946 it became a B-17 operational training base for units such as 92nd Bomber Group, B-17 Flying Fortress Combat Crew Replacement Centre (CCRC), 11th CCRC, and 8th USAAF HQ Squadron. The RAF resumed control until 1951, then the USAF took over again until 1962 flying B-26 Marauders, B-29 Superfortresses, and B-50 Superfortresses. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's personal aircraft was said to be based here, as Bovingdon was the closest Eighth Air Force base to London.

Flying ceased in 1969, though some flying scenes for the film Hanover Street were shot there in 1978. The field served as airport for Hemel Hempstead during most of the postwar period.

Several films were made there including The War Lover, 633 Squadron, Hanover Street, an episode of the Persuaders, The Man With The Golden Gun (the flying car scene) and Mosquito Squadron.

The airfield site houses a VOR navigational beacon, code BNN. The airspace above the airfield and nearby Chesham is known as the Bovingdon stack and is a holding area for aircraft approaching Heathrow Airport, 20 miles to the south. At busy times on a clear day a dozen planes circle.

The remainder of the site is used for a Saturday market and there is a permanent circuit for banger racing. The airfield is also a site for paintballing.

Of the three original runways, the North East/South West runway is still complete, and used for parking on market days.

The North West/South East runway is completely gone. The East/West runway is still complete, the Eastern end of which is used for the weekend Market, the Western end used to be used by the Farmers aircraft. The control tower still exists, but is in a very poor state. A lot of the taxiways, and the 2nd World War Bomb Dump trackways are mostly gone, a victim of hardcore reclamation, a common end of a large number of disused airfields in the UK.

Notable Residents

• Goldie - drum-and-bass DJ.
• Frances de la Tour - actress

Infamous crime

In 1971 the poisoner Graham Frederick Young committed two murders while working for a local photographic company, John Hadland.

External links

• Bovingdon history group
• Bovingdon Cricket Club