Wendens Ambo

Coordinates: 52°00′18″N 0°12′14″E / 52.005°N 0.204°E / 52.005; 0.204

Wendens Ambo is a small village of approximately four hundred people in Essex, England, measured at 473 in the 2011 census. Its unusual name originates from the joining of two villages, Great and Little Wenden, to form Wendens Ambo, meaning "both Wendens".

Situation

Wendens Ambo is approximately two miles south-west of the market town of Saffron Walden, fifteen miles south of Cambridge and forty miles north of London.

Wendens Ambo is in the constituency of Uttlesford, located in the north west of Essex. The MP for Uttlesford is Sir Alan Haselhurst.

Within the village is Audley End railway station which is the main station for Audley End House and Saffron Walden.

History

The earliest signs of settlement are from the Roman period. Remains of a villa were found during an excavation in 1853, and finds of flint tools from 300-200BC suggest an even earlier settlement.

It is likely that the farming community of Wenden probably started around the 6th and 7th centuries, taking its name from the valley in which it lies: Wendene. The Domesday Book contains the first written account of Wenden Magna (Great Wenden) and Wenden Parva (Little Wenden). Wenden Magna was owned by Robert Gernon, a Frenchman who also had land in Stansted and Takeley. Wenden Parva was also owned by a Frenchman, William de Warenne. The Wendens passed through the Middle Ages as very ordinary English villages. One of the two villages may also have been called "Loutes Wenden", as seen in a legal record of 1470, where the nearby villages of "Arkysden" & "Elmedon" are also mentioned.