Harlow

Harlow District of Harlow
Town & District
Harlow Water Gardens
Shown within Essex
Country	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	East of England
Ceremonial County	Essex
Government
• Leadership	Alternative – Sec.31
• Control	Conservative
• MP	Robert Halfon
Area
• District	11.79 sq mi (30.54 km2)
Population
• District	Ranked 281st 85,400
• Density	7,240/sq mi (2,796/km2)
• Ethnicity	92.5% White 2.5% Asian 1.8% Black 1.6% Chinese or Other 1.5% Mixed
ONS code	22UJ
Website	http://www.harlow.gov.uk/

Harlow First Avenue Multi-Modal Corridor

Developments in and around Harlow.
Location	Essex
Proposer	Essex County Council
Cost estimate	£4.4 million (2008)
Completion date	February 2010
Geometry	KML

Harlow is a former Mark One New Town and local government district in the west of Essex, England. Situated on the border with Hertfordshire, it occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upper Stort Valley, which has been made navigable through other towns and features a canal section near its watermill. Old Harlow is a village-size suburb founded by the early medieval age and most of its high street buildings are early Victorian and residential, mostly protected by one of the Conservation Areas in the district. In Old Harlow is a field named Harlowbury, a de-settled monastic area which has the remains of a chapel, a scheduled ancient monument.

The M11 motorway passes through the east of the district, entirely to the east of the town. Harlow has its own commercial. and leisure economy. It is also an outer part of the London commuter belt and employment centre of the M11 corridor which includes Cambridge and London Stansted to the north. At the time of the 2011 Census, Harlow's population was recorded at 81,944 and its district had the third-highest proportion of social housing in England, 26.9%, a legacy of the 1947 commitment to re-house blitzed London families after World War II and provide a percentage of homes for other needy families who cannot afford market rents.

There is some dispute as to where the placename Harlow derives from. One theory is that it derives from the Anglo-Saxon words 'here' and 'hlaw', meaning "army hill", probably to be identified with Mulberry Hill, which was used as the or meeting place for the district.

The other theory is that it derives from the words 'here' and 'hearg', meaning "temple hill/mound", probably to be identified with an Iron Age burial mound, later a Roman temple site on River Way.