Dacorum
is a local government area that includes the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and many surrounding villages. In the 2001 census it had a population of 137,799. The district is entirely
parished apart from Hemel Hempstead.
The District of Dacorum was formed in
1974, under the
Local Government Act 1972 by the amalgamation of 7 smaller local authorities, each symbolised in the 7 oak leaves in the centre of the coat of arms. The district was granted
borough status in 1984. Hemel Hempstead had maintained
Charter Trustees from 1974 to 1984.
The five major components were the municipal borough of
Hemel Hempstead, the urban districts of
Berkhamsted and
Tring, the rural districts of
Berkhamsted and
Hemel Hempstead. Also, those parts of the rural districts of
St Albans and
Watford which were within the designated area of Hemel Hempstead
new town were included. The constituent towns and villages of the borough are:
Aldbury,
Bovingdon,
Berkhamsted, Bourne End, Bulbourne,
Chipperfield, Cow Roast,
Flamstead,
Flaunden, Frithsden, Gaddesden Row, Great
Gaddesden,
Hemel Hempstead,
Kings Langley,
Little Gaddesden, Little Tring, Long Marston,
Markyate,
Nettleden, New Mill,
Northchurch, Potten End, Ringshall,
Tring, Tringford, Water End, and
Wigginton.
The borough is name from the old
hundred of
Dacorum which covered approximately the same area. The name of the hundred, first recorded in
1196, is simply the
Latin for "of the
Danes", since the hundred lies at the margin of the
Danelaw, the southern boundary of which was formed by the River
Lea. This hundred was a combination of the two
Domesday Book hundreds of
Tring and
Danais.
The Borough is twinned with the town of
Neu-Isenburg in
Germany. Berkhamsted is twinned separately with
Beaune (France) and
Kings Langley with
Baku (
Ghana)