Editing Much Hadham (section)

==History==
The name Hadham probably derives from Old English words meaning ‘Heath homestead’.  The affix ‘Much’ comes from the Old English ‘mycel’, meaning ‘great’.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dictionary of English Place Names| last=Mills| first=A.D.| year=1998| location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press|edition=2|page=159}}</ref> The name changed around the time of the Civil War.

The parish has been occupied at least since the Roman period.  There were pottery kilns in the parish in the Roman period,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://potsherd.net/atlas/Ware/HARS.html|title=Hadham red-slipped wares|website=potsherd.net|access-date=2019-08-06}}</ref> and a Roman coin hoard has been found nearby.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cleary|first=Simon Esmonde|title=Review of ''Coin Hoards from Roman Britain IX''|editor= Roger Bland|journal=Britannia|volume=26|year=1995|page=396|doi=10.2307/526893|jstor=526893}}</ref>

Written records of Much Hadham go back to the time of King Edgar.  The village was a possession of the Bishops of London before the Norman Conquest and it appears in Domesday Book as ‘Hadham’.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://opendomesday.org/place/TL4219/much-hadham/|title=[Much] Hadham {{!}} Domesday Book|website=opendomesday.org|access-date=2019-08-06}}</ref> The parish church was built from 1220–1450.  The village was a staging point on the road from London to Cambridge and Newmarket, and the Olde Red Lion Inn, built in the 15th century to serve this traffic, survives.

The Bishop's Palace was used as an asylum from 1817–1863.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MHT2771&resourceID=1008|title=The Palace, Much Hadham|website=Heritage Gateway|access-date=6 August 2019}}</ref>

During the First World War, there was a [[British Red Cross]]/[[Order of St. John|Order of St John]] auxiliary hospital in Much Hadham.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.redcross.org.uk:80/~/media/BritishRedCross/Documents/Who%20we%20are/History%20and%20archives/List%20of%20auxiliary%20hospitals%20in%20the%20UK%20during%20the%20First%20World%20War.pdf|title=List of auxiliary hospitals in the UK during the First World War|website=British Red Cross|page=31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517125617/http://www.redcross.org.uk/~/media/BritishRedCross/Documents/Who%20we%20are/History%20and%20archives/List%20of%20auxiliary%20hospitals%20in%20the%20UK%20during%20the%20First%20World%20War.pdf|archive-date=17 May 2017|url-status=dead|access-date=6 August 2019}}</ref>  Today a plaque on the front of Woodham House commemorates it.

During the [[Second World War]] Much Hadham was the site of [[Prisoner of War camp]] 69.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Thomas|first=Roger J.C.|title=Prisoner of War Camps (1939–1948)|year=2003|url=https://www.historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/prisoner-of-war-camps/}}</ref>  The camp was opened in 1939, housing Italian prisoners of war and later German prisoners, as well as housing American and [[Gurkha]] soldiers as they prepared for the D-Day landings.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}} The camp closed around 1950.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/Hadham-man-finds-Second-World-War-camp-garden/story-21977431-detail/story.html|title=Much Hadham man finds Second World War camp in his back garden|publisher=Hertfordshire Mercury|date=19 August 2010|last=Burton|first=James}}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>