Stansted Village, nr Stansted Airport

Stansted Mountfitchet

Coordinates: 51°53′53″N 0°11′54″E / 51.898047°N 0.198306°E / 51.898047; 0.198306

Stansted Mountfitchet
Stansted Mountfitchet  Stansted Mountfitchet shown within Essex
Population	5,533 (2001)
OS grid reference	TL513244
District	Uttlesford
Shire county	Essex
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	STANSTED
Postcode district	CM24
Dialling code	01279
Police	Essex
Fire	Essex
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Saffron Walden
List of places: UK • England • Essex

The windmill

Stansted Mountfitchet is a village and civil parish in the county of Essex, England, near the Hertfordshire border, 35 miles north of London. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 5,532.

The village is served by Stansted Mountfitchet railway station.

Stansted Mountfitchet is situated in north-west Essex near the Hertfordshire border and a few miles north of Bishops Stortford. BAA Stansted Airport, a major airport and the third-busiest in the UK  is just two miles from the village. The village contains two primary schools and one high school, the latter of which was recently renamed the Mountfitchet Mathematics and Computing College.

Stansted was a Saxon settlement (the name means 'stony place' in Saxon) and predates the Norman invasion of England, although it was not until this invasion that it inherited the suffix Mountfitchet from the Norman baron who settled there. A small remnant of his castle remains, around which a reconstruction of an early Norman castle has been built. Believed to have been fortified originally in the Iron Age, and subsequently by the Romans and Vikings, construction of the Norman castle began in 1066.

Stansted Hall was built in 1871.

Other village attractions include the House on the Hill Toy Museum, which its owners claim "is the largest toy museum in Europe". Located next to the castle, both attractions are owned by Alan Goldsmith. The museum opened in 1991 and holds over 80,000 toys, mostly from the 1950s to the 1980s.

A working windmill built in 1787 is in the village, and is open to the public once a month.

During the Second World War, the US Air Force constructed an airfield near the village. After the war ended, it was subsequently taken over by the government and developed as a commercial airport. Today, BAA Stansted Airport is accessible by road from Junction 8 of the M11 motorway, near Bishop's Stortford and direct by train from London Liverpool Street.

A large number of homes are being built in a new development to the southeast side of the village, at the site of the former Rochford Nurseries in Forest Hall Road.

Economy

At one time, AirUK (later KLM uk) had its head office in the Stansted House on the grounds of Stansted Airport in Stansted Mountfitchet. When Buzz existed, its head office was in the Endeavour House on the grounds of Stansted.

External links

• Stansted Essex Business Directory
• Mountfitchet Garden Club
• St Mary's CofE Primary School
• BAA Stansted Airport official web site
• The House on the Hill Toy Museum
• Mountfichet Castle and Norman Village
• Stansted Mountfitchet Windmill
• St. John's Church, Stansted (CofE)
• Stansted Cricket Club
• Mountfitchet Mathematics and Computing College website