Stansted Mountfitchet

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude= 51.898047
longitude= 0.198306
official_name= Stansted Mountfitchet
population = 5,533 (2001)
static_

shire_district= Uttlesford
shire_county = Essex
region= East of England
constituency_westminster=Saffron Walden
post_town= STANSTED
postcode_district=CM24
postcode_area= CM
dial_code= 01279
os_grid_reference=TL513244. 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 on the border of Hertfordshire's Bishops Stortford. BAA Stansted Airport, a major airport and the third-busiest in the UK . [Cite web|url=http://www.stanstedairport.com/portal/site/default/menuitem.f9a158caeb4b03d588a5e186c02865a0|title=BAA Stansted official web site|accessdate=2007-07-13] is just 2 miles from the village. The village contains 2 primary schools and one high school. The High School is now called Mountfitchet Mathematics and Computing College.

Stansted was a Saxon settlement (the name means 'stony place' in Saxon) and pre-dates the Norman invasion of England, although it wasn't 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.

The village also boasts the House on the Hill Toy Museum, which is the largest toy museum in Europe. Located next to the castle, it 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, causing the normal related controversy and debate in the local area.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.mountfitchetgardenclub.co.uk Mountfitchet Garden Club]
* [http://www.st-marys-stansted.essex.sch.uk St Mary's CofE Primary School]
* [http://www.stanstedairport.com BAA Stansted Airport official web site]
* [http://www.stanstedtoymuseum.com The House on the Hill Toy Museum]
* [http://www.mountfitchetcastle.com Mountfichet Castle and Norman Village]
* [http://stanstedmountfitchetwindmill.co.uk Stansted Mountfitchet Windmill]
* [http://www.mhs.myschools.net Secondary School Website]
* [http://www.stansted.net/stjohns St. John's Church, Stansted (CofE)]