Walkern is a village and civil parish in East Hertfordshire. It is located on the River Beane
about two miles from Stevenage, and is noted as the home of Jane Wenham, who was in 1712 the last woman in England to be convicted
of witchcraft and condemned to death, her body lies in an unmarked grave at St Mary's Church in Hertingfordbury.
The River Beane, a chalk stream, crosses the village street of Church End in a ford, which is
overlooked by the medieval Bridgefoot Farm and thatched Wych Elm cottage. The parish church of St Mary the Virgin is the oldest
village church in Hertfordshire, with a Saxon wall and rare chalk rood (crucifix) dating back to the middle 10th century.
St Mary's also has a fine Purbeck marble effigy which is possibly that of William de Lanvalei, baron of Walkern in the early
13th century and one of the 25 sureties named in the Magna Carta elected to ensure that King John adhered to the 'Law of the
Land' set down in the charter in 1215.
We visited on a gloomy, almost sunless day in October 2014.
