Widford, Hertfordshire

Description
Widford, a parish, with a village, in Herts, on the river Ash, with a station on the Buntingford branch of the G.E.R,, 4 miles E by N of Ware. It has a post office under Ware; money order and telegraph office, Much Hadham. Acreage, 1168; population, 461. The manor belongs to the Parry-Mitchell family. There are two barrows. The living is a, rectory in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £186 with residence. The church is a small but ancient building of flint and stone in the Decorated and Perpendicular styles. Charles Lamb has immortalized Widford in his " Essays of Elia." He lays the scene of Rosmond Gray here. The father of Archbishop Whately was rector of Widford, John Eliot, " Apostle to the Indians," was born here, and his descendants have erected a window to his memory in the church.