Some Knebworth history

There is clear evidence of people living in the Knebworth area as far back as the 11th century as it is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it is referred to as Chenepeworde. This name refers to the fact that the area of Knebworth was originally a farm belonging to a 5th century Saxon Dane, named Cnebba). At this time, Knebworth had a recorded population of thirty three households and land belonging to Eskil of Ware, who was a Knight of King Edward the Confessor. There is another interpretation, though, that the name could instead have meant ‘village on the hill’. The spelling of the name ‘Chenepeworde’ has since changed to become the modern spelling of ‘Knebworth’.

The original village is now referred to as Old Knebworth and was developed within the parish of the Church of St Mary and St Thomas. The stone church was built around 1120, and although the Domesday Book makes no mention of the church there is speculation to suggest there may have been a Saxon church of timber on the site before the more substantial one was built.

Knebworth House

The Knebworth manor passed into the hands of the Lytton family around 1492, when the manor house was rebuilt to a Late Gothic manor house. The house changed very little until the 19th century when it was re-modelled into the present-day Tudor Gothic building.

Knebworth was a largely agricultural community, producing wheat and barley in particular. Owing to the to Great North Road, which is now the A1, and now the B197 since the opening of the A1(M) motorway in 1962, trade and goods from London were made far easier.

By the start of the 19th century Knebworth had a population of around two hundred and fifty people but the Industrial Revolution and the railway coming to Knebworth changed all that and Knebworth began to expand.

The initial development of the more up to date Knebworth village was centred a mile to the east of Old Knebworth on the area around the new railway station and the Great North Road. The route of the railway, which was originally meant to go through Codicote to the west, was negotiated by Lord Lytton so that it would go through the grounds of Knebworth, and have a station built there. The Great Northern Railway, itself opened in 1850, opened a station at Knebworth in 1884. Lord Lytton set up a company, Knebworth Garden Villages, to build homes either side of the railway embankment. Prior to this, only a few farmhouses had stood nearby, including Swangley’s farm and Deards End farm. The railway station site eventually grew to include a signal box and goods yard to the north.

People from London, some neighbouring counties, and even more distant areas of the country came to work in the new Knebworth area.

At the turn of the century the architect Edwin Lutyens built Homewood, south-east of Old Knebworth, as a dower house for Edith Bulwer-Lytton. Her daughter, the suffragette Constance Lytton, also lived there, until just before her death in 1923. Edith’s third daughter, Lady Emily Bulwer-Lytton, had married Lutyens in 1897. Lutyens was responsible for a number of notable buildings in the new village of Knebworth as well, including the Bank, St Martin’s church, the Golf Clubhouse and the telephone exchange.

Knebworth keeps on rocking!

Knebworth has, since 1974, been famously associated with many major open air rock and pop concerts at Knebworth House. These include Knebworth Fair in 1976, featuring the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd, which had an attendance of almost 250,000 as well as Queen’s final live performance which took place on 9 August 1986 and drew an attendance estimated at 125,000.

On 30 June 1990, Pink Floyd played at Knebworth. Nearly 31 years later, on 30 April 2021, this performance was released as a live album.

In 1996, Oasis played the Knebworth festival to a quarter of a million people over two nights, for which 2.5 million people applied for tickets, a figure that could have led to 20 sold-out nights, and remains the highest recorded demand for a British concert to date. Most recently, for three nights in August 2003 Robbie Williams performed to the largest crowd ever assembled for a single performer.

The logistics for the Knebworth rock festivals was huge. It put a major strain on the Hertfordshire Constabulary and the Highways agency, as the location of Knebworth House meant that hundreds of thousands of people had to cross the A1 slip roads to access Knebworth Park. Rumours started to circulate that Hatfield House would become the go to venue for all future rock festivals in Hertfordshire, as it is just opposite a mainline railway station.