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General
The Hadham part of the name derives from the Old English words haeth and ham or hamm and translates as ‘heathy homestead/village’ or ‘heathy hemmed-in land’. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the name appears as Parva Hadham (parva being Latin for small).
In the mediaeval St Cecilia’s church there is a memorial stone to Arthur, Lord Capel. It seems that Arthur took the side of the Crown during the Civil War but he was captured by the Parliamentarians and hung on 9th March 1649. One of his last requests was for his heart to be buried with King Charles I but instead it was preserved in a silver box and given to Charles II after the Restoration. It is thought that the King sent it to the first Earl of Essex because a heart in a silver box was found at Hadam Hall in 1703. It later went with the family to Cassiobury in Watford but was then lost.
The current population of the village is 328.
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Hadam Hall
A ghostly horse and cart frequents the driveway of Hadam Hall. The cart, lit with eerie lights, travels silently along moving away from the hall and a grey lady can be seen peering out of a window. The grounds also have a phantom gardener and his dog so maybe the lady is watching them. The grey lady is thought to be a young servant girl who committed suicide or Elizabeth Capel, a member of the Capel family who once owned the hall.
The building is an Elizabethan structure built in 1575 for the Capel family. It has octagonal towers but has been partially destroyed. The sixteenth century building stands on the site of an older building which was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Since 1952 the building has been used as a school.
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