Flamstead (St. Leonard)

FLAMSTEAD (St. Leonard), a parish, in the union of Hemel-Hempstead, hundred of Dacorum, county of Hertford, 2¾ miles (N. W.) from Redbourn; containing 1492 inhabitants. The village stands near the Watling-street, upon the summit of a high ridge of land, rising abruptly from the south-western side of the valley through which the river Ver runs; and was in ancient times called Verlam-stedt, in allusion to its situation near the river. A priory, dedicated to St. Giles, is stated by Leland to have been founded at Woodchurch, in the neighbourhood, by Roger de Tony, for a prioress and nuns; the demesnes of which, at the dissolution of religious houses, were granted by Henry VIII. to Sir Richard Page, Knt., to whose mansion Edward VI. was sent in his infancy for the benefit of a salubrious air. The living is a perpetual curacy; income, £117; patrons and appropriators, the Master and Fellows of University College, Oxford, whose tithes have been commuted for £1220, and who have a glebe of 82 acres. An almshouse was founded by Thomas Saunders, in 1669.