Knebworth is a village and civil parish in the north of Hertfordshire, England, immediately south of Stevenage. The civil parish covers an area between the villages of Datchworth, Woolmer Green, Codicote, Kimpton, Whitwell, St Paul's Walden and Langley, and encompasses the village of Knebworth, the small village of Old Knebworth and Knebworth House. History There is evidence of people living in the area as far back as the 11th century as it is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it is referred to as Chenepeworde (the farm belonging to the 5th century Saxon Dane, Cnebba), with a recorded population of 33 households and land belonging to Eskil (of Ware), a thegn of King Edward the Confessor. There is an alternative interpretation, though, that the name could instead have meant 'village on the hill'. The spelling of the name 'Chenepeworde' has since changed to become the modern spelling of 'Knebworth'. The original village, now known as Old Knebworth, developed within the parish of the Church of St Mary and St Thomas. The stone church was built around 1120, and although the Domesday Book makes no mention of the church there is speculation to suggest there may have been a Saxon church of timber on the site before the more substantial one was built. The manor passed into the hands of the Lytton family around 1492, when the manor house was rebuilt to a Late Gothic manor house. The house changed very little until the 19th century when it was re-modelled into the present-day Tudor Gothic building. Knebworth was a largely agricultural community, producing wheat and barley in particular. The proximity to London via the Great North Road (subsequently the A1, and now the B197 since the opening of the A1(M) motorway in 1962) made it possible to transport produce. By the start of the 19th century Knebworth had a population of around 250 people but the Industrial Revolution and the railway coming to Knebworth changed that. Initial development of the newer Knebworth village was centred a mile to the east of Old Knebworth on the area around the new railway station and the Great North Road. The route of the railway – which was originally meant to go through Codicote to the west – was negotiated by Lord Lytton so that it would go through the grounds of Knebworth, and have a station built there. The Great Northern Railway,