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Sawbridgeworth (traditionally or , now also ) is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, close to the border with Essex. It is east of the county town of Hertford and north of Epping. It is the northernmost part of the Greater London Built-up Area.
Prior to the Norman conquest, most of the area was owned by the Anglo-Saxons Angmar the Staller.
The Manor of "Sabrixteworde" (one of the many spellings previously associated with the town) was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. After the Battle of Hastings it was granted to Geoffrey de Mandeville I by William the Conqueror. Local notables have included John Leventhorpe, an executor of both King Henry IV and King Henry V's wills, and Anne Boleyn, who was given the Pishobury estate, located to the south of the town.
The Great Hyde Hall mansion and surrounding land was acquired by Sir Walter Lawrence, the master builder, in the 1920s. In 1934, he instituted the Walter Lawrence Trophy for the fastest century in county cricket. He built a cricket ground and pavilion in the grounds where the great and the good of the cricket world came to play against Sir Walter's home team, which often included his three sons: Jim, Guy and Pat. Sir Walter also had two daughters: Molly and Gipsy. Great Hyde Hall was sold in 1945 and became a school. It is a Grade II* listed building and has now been divided into housing.
Much of the town centre is a conservation area; many of the buildings date from the Tudor, Stuart and Georgian periods.
Great St Mary's Church is a Grade I listed building; "of special interest as a substantially unaltered large medieval parish church, typical of the Hertfordshire type, and with an outstanding collection of memorials of the highest artistic quality". It was built in the 13th century (although a church on the site existed in Saxon times) and includes a Tudor period tower containing a clock bell (1664) and eight ringing bells, the oldest of which dates from 1749. Sawbridgeworth Church bells It is thought to be called 'Great' St Mary's to distinguish it from St Mary's, Gilston. Ralph Josselyn of Hyde Hall, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1464 and in 1476, is buried here; images of many of his family and other locals have been engraved on brass, and the church is popular for enthusiasts of brass rubbing. The ghost of Sir John Jocelyn, known for his love of horses, is reputed to appear riding a white horse on the old carriage drive every 1 November.
The town's prosperity came from the maltings, some of which now house antiques centres. Among the maltsters were George Fawbert and John Barnard; in 1839 they set up the Fawbert and Barnard charity to fund local children and their education, funding a local infant school that still exists today.
By the time of the Norman conquest, or soon after, Sawbridgeworth's rich farming land was fully developed for cultivation as was possible with the means available at the time: it was the richest village community in the county. Many important medieval families had estates here. The land was divided among them, into a number of manorialism or distinct estates; the lord of each manor had rights not only over this land but also over the people who farmed it. The number of manors increased during the Middle Ages, by a process of subinfeudation, that is the granting out of a part of an existing manor to a new owner so that the new manor was created. Many manors sprang from the original Domesday Book holding of the de Mandeville family. The first came to be called Sayesbury manor, from the de Say family who inherited it from the de Mandevilles in 1189. The many important people who held these manors built themselves houses with hunting parks around them; when they died their tombs enriched the parish church, so that today St Mary's has one of the finest collections of in the country.
During the Second World War RAF Sawbridgeworth, which is not in the civil parish, operated Supermarine Spitfires, Westland Lysanders, North American Mustangs and de Havilland Mosquito, among other types - for a complete history of the airfield, see the book Where the Lysanders were ....., by Paul Doyle, published in 1995 by Forward Airfield Research Publishing. The Walter Lawrence & Son Ltd joinery works, located in Lower Sheering, between the canal and the railway, built over 1,000 Mosquito fuselage shells and wing skins for de Havilland during the Second World War. Subsequently, it reverted to making joinery and doors for the building trade. The joinery works was closed in about 1982 and Lawrence Moorings flats complex was built on the site.
Sawbridgeworth was the birthplace of composer Bernard Rose (1916–1996) and the actor Stephen Greif (1944–2022).
Sawbridgeworth has been twinned with Bry-sur-Marne in France since 1973, and Moosburg an der Isar in Germany since 2018.
| Unknown |
| Andrew Wincott |
| Barry Hodges (2014-15), Tom Reeks (2015-16) |
| Ruth Buckmaster |
| Angela Alder |
| Heather Riches |
| David Royle |
| Greg Rattey |
| Craig Chester (2021-22), Ruth Buckmaster (2022-23) |
| Reece Smith |
| Salvatore Pagdades |
| Angus Parsad-Wyatt |
The parish of Sawbridgeworth was in the hundred of Braughing. From 1835 the parish was included in the Bishop's Stortford Poor Law Union. It therefore became part of the Bishop's Stortford Rural Sanitary District in 1872. Under the Local Government Act 1894 elected parish and district councils were created. Sawbridgeworth Parish Council came into office on 31 December 1894, and the parish was included in the Hadham Rural District. Sawbridgeworth was made an urban district on 1 April 1901, making it independent of the Hadham Rural District. It was decided that the whole parish of Sawbridgeworth was not suitable for becoming an urban district, and so the more rural western part of the parish was made a separate parish called High Wych on the same day, which remained in the Hadham Rural District.
Until 1914 Sawbridgeworth Urban District Council met at offices on Bell Street (sometimes called Cock Street). In 1914 the council moved to the upper floor of the town's fire station at 5 Church Street, which had been built in 1905. In 1937 the council built itself new offices on The Forebury, holding its first meeting in the new building on 5 July 1937.
Sawbridgeworth Urban District Council was granted a coat of arms on 20 July 1962.
The urban district was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, becoming part of East Hertfordshire on 1 April 1974. A successor parish (and Sawbridgeworth Town Council) was created for the former urban district. The urban district council's former offices on The Forebury are now used as the town's library, whilst Sawbridgeworth Town Council is based at Sayesbury Manor on Bell Street.
Local radio stations are BBC Three Counties Radio, Heart Hertfordshire and East Herts Radio, a community-based station.
The town is served by the local newspapers, Bishop's Stortford Independent and Hertfordshire Mercury.
Sawbridgeworth Cricket Club field three senior sides on a Saturday and seven colts sides, from ages nine to fifteen. The 1st XI plays in the Hertfordshire Cricket League. The main ground is Town Fields, situated behind Bell Street. The second ground is at Leventhorpe Academy.
Sawbridgeworth has tennis and bowls clubs.
The town is served by Sawbridgeworth railway station, located on the West Anglia Main Line between London Liverpool Street and Cambridge. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Greater Anglia.
There are bus services to Harlow, Bishops Stortford, and Stansted Airport, operated by Arriva Herts & Essex.
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