Wallington, Hertfordshire
| Wallington | |
| Hertfordshire | |
|---|---|
 St Mary, Wallington | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TL290338 |
| Location: | 51°59’18"N, 0°7’19"W |
| Data | |
| Postcode: | SG7 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | North Hertfordshire |
Wallington is a small village in Hertfordshire, in the north of the county near the town of Baldock. Nearby villages include Rushden, with which Wallington shares a civil parish ("Rushden and Wallington") and Sandon..
The parish church is St Mary's.
George Orwell
The author George Orwell lived in a small cottage at no 2 Kits Lane, known as The Stores, in the village from 1936 to 1940, and at occasional weekends (when he was otherwise mainly in London) until he gave up the lease on the cottage in 1947. He ran the village shop for a large portion of his life in Wallington. A commemorative plaque was placed there in 1989 by Hertfordshire County Council (not an entirely accurate one though by some accounts). He had married his first wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy at the village church on 9 June 1936.
Orwell wrote his notable book Animal Farm in 1944 probably much of it while he was at the village and certainly drew on his experiences there for inspiration, especially Manor Farm and The Great Barn. The farm in the village is, as in the book called Manor Farm.[1]
Other notable books that he wrote while he lived in the village include Homage to Catalonia and The Road to Wigan Pier (which he had largely researched before he moved to Wallington, but which was written and published after his arrival.) Many of his notable essays, reviews and articles in various journals and collections, were also written during this period.
Outside links
References
- ↑ George Orwell in Wallington, Coutts Smith, Jim ; Wallington Church Preservation Trust, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9565052-1-7 (reprint of article originally in A North Hertfordshire Miscellany , 1995, North Hertfordshire Villages Research Group)
