Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Welwyn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish also includes the villages of Digswell and Oaklands. It is sometimes referred to as Old Welwyn or Welwyn Village, to distinguish it from the much newer and larger settlement of Welwyn Garden City, about a mile to the south.

The nearby modern village of Digswell (around Welwyn North railway station) was originally called 'High Welwyn' when first developed at the beginning of the 20th century.

Situated in the valley of the River Mimram, Welwyn has hosted human activity since the Palaeolithic with stone tools from that era having been found alongside the river and further inland across the area. Settlement across the area seems to have become established during the Bronze Age according to various recovered artefacts and crop marks left by round barrows and burial mounds from that period.

Much later, in the 17th century, as it lies on the old Great North Road, it became an important staging post and a number of coaching inns remain as public houses. After the Great Northern Railway by-passed the village due to the objections of local landowners, Welwyn became less important. Having previously been seen as a town on par with Hatfield and Stevenage, it gradually was seen as a village. The 20th century brought major expansion to the area, as estates to the south, west and north of the village were built up.

Transport Welwyn was noted for its congestion since the beginning of the 20th century, but in 1927 it got what is claimed to be the first by-pass in Britain. The A1 was upgraded to motorway standards north of Welwyn in the 1960s, and in 1973 the motorway was extended south past the village, by-passing the existing by-pass. Today the village is the point where the six-lane motorway merges into four lanes and is the site of extensive traffic jams in the evening peak.

There had been extensive plans to widen the whole road through the area to eight lanes, and to upgrade the existing junction to create a long one-way system running the length of the village. These plans were shelved, but recently plans to provide a climbing lane at least on the section north of the village have been discussed.

Buses are provided by Arriva Shires & Essex and Centrebus, with some assistance from Hertfordshire County Council. Arriva's 300/301 Centraline service links Welwyn and Oaklands to the nearby towns of Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead, as well as neighbouring villages Woolmer Green and Knebworth. The 301 additionally connects both the nearby hospitals in Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City, while the 300 provides a direct link to recreational areas such as Stanborough Lakes in Welwyn Garden City and Verulamium Roman town in St Albans.

Buses run every 15 minutes Monday–Friday, every 20 minutes Saturday, and hourly on Sunday. Additional bi-hourly service 314 is provided by Centrebus, connecting Welwyn to Codicote and Hitchin.

Green Line route 797 used to stop on the by-pass, providing an hourly direct link to areas of North London and the West End, however, the service ceased in September 2016.

The nearest railway station to Welwyn Village is Welwyn North in the nearby village of Digswell, about a mile east from the village, while Knebworth station, one stop nearer Stevenage, is easier for residents of Oaklands to access.

Trains are operated by Great Northern and run every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday south to London King's Cross and north to Hitchin and Stevenage, with an hourly service to Letchworth and Cambridge and to Peterborough. On Sundays an hourly service operates from London to Cambridge only. There is no bus link to Welwyn North station, although buses do link to nearby Welwyn Garden City station and Knebworth station.