The earliest mention in surviving documents of the manor of Langalega is in a Saxon charter dated circa 1050. It appears as Langelai in the Domesday Book of 1086, and is recorded as Langel' Regis ("Langley of the King") in 1254. The name means "long wood or clearing".
History
A Roman villa has been excavated just south of the village.[2]
The manor was probably a possession of the Abbey of St. Albans, the records of which have been lost. Following the Norman Conquest of 1066 the manor was one of hundreds given to Robert, Count of Mortain, uterine half-brother of King William the Conqueror. His tenant was a certain Ralf. The present village developed as a linear village along the old road from London to Berkhamsted and beyond to the Midlands.[3] In the Domesday Book of 1086, Langley was in the hundred of Danish.[4] By 1346 the place was known as Kyngeslangley and by 1428 as Lengele Regis.[5]
The Grand Union Canal dating from 1797, and the 1838, London and Birmingham Railway which later became the West Coast Main Line, (the main railway line from London to the north west) pass just east of the village at Kings Langley railway station. There are many businesses located near the station in Home Park Industrial Estate which is also the site of the Construction and Engineering Centre of West Herts College.[8]
20th century housing developments have led to the village spreading out on either side of the main road. The A41 has now been diverted west of the village leaving the high street to local traffic for the first time in centuries.
During the Second World War, the village was home to the secret headquarters in Britain of the Polish Underground army based at Barnes Lodge just off the Hempstead Road near Rucklers Lane.[9]
Kings Langley was the site of the factory making Ovaltine chocolate drink; the listed factory facade, designed c.1923 by James Albert Bowden is now all that is left and still stands alongside the railway line among a new housing development. The Ovaltine factory itself has been converted into a series of flats and duplexes.[10]
Kings Langley was also the site of a Waldorf School, the Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley which closed in 2019. This was built on the grounds of the old palace, of which only a small basement part of a pillar remains to be seen. There was a small display cabinet of finds from the palace period in the school entrance foyer.[8]
The M25, the London orbital motorway, passes just south of the village on an imposing viaduct across the River Gade valley. To the north of junction 20 with the A41, a dual-carriageway bypasses Kings Langley and continues to the south of Tring where it flows into the original motorway-standard by-pass. The old route through Kings Langley is now classified the A4251.
Rucklers Lane
Just to the north of Kings Langley is a small village called Rucklers Lane, named after the road it is built on. The origin of the settlement in the early 20th century was the construction of a number of mock tudor houses for the workers on the nearby Shendish Manor estate. A community hall was also built for the workers in 1909 as a memorial to Arthur Longman, the owner of the estate; it was originally intended as a chapel of ease to avoid the long walk to the parish church.[13] Further west along the lane is Phasels Wood Scout Camp and Activity Centre which opened in 1937.[14]
Kings Langley CC currently play in Divisions 2B, Division 7 West and Division 10 South, of the Saracens Hertfordshire Cricket League.
Bowls
Kings Langley Bowls Club is situated in Green Park at the end of the Nap car park. It is a popular lawn bowls club with club and district competitions for bowlers of all abilities. It includes a club house with licensed bar and good social programs.
Frank Toovey Lake, (1849–1868) a member of the mill-owning Toovey family and a Victorian sailor who died in Japan while a member of Richard Henry Brunton's lighthouse survey party
^ abHertfordshire Federation of Women's Institutes (1986). The Hertfordshire Village Book. Ann Roxburgh (Forward). Countryside Books. ISBN0-905392-71-X.
^ abcKings Langley Local History and Museum Society
Hertfordshire Federation of Women's Institutes; Ann Roxburgh (Forward) (1986). The Hertfordshire Village Book. Countryside Books. Section on Kings Langley. ISBN0-905392-71-X.