please empty your brain below

It's not just the "property-thumping media" trying to fool everyone dg, obviously the schools are trying to get into the act too:

http://www.dulwichvillageinfants.co.uk/
http://www.dulwichhamletjuniorschool.org.uk/

Although they were called those names when I went to them 40 years ago, so maybe there is a historical precedent for these.
And even the people who named the roads are trying to fool us, how devious can you get?

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?client=safari&q=map+dulwich+village&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&ei=zu5uVKXdNJPaaoWygbAP&ved=0CAkQ_AU&output=classic&dg=brw
Farleigh, which is undoubtedly a village, was originally part of the London Borough of Croydon, but was transferred to Surrey.

Wikipedia explains in the entry on Coulsdon & Purley Urban District:

"It was anticipated that the practice of combining whole existing units of local government might provide an unsatisfactory boundary in some places. The London Government Act 1963 Section 6 (4) provided a mechanism for communities on the edge of Greater London to petition for transfer to a neighbouring county. The legislation required the petition to be submitted between 1965 and 1970, to be signed by more than 300 local electors and for the area to be transferred to have no more than 10% of the borough's local electors. Following this procedure, in 1969 Farleigh was transferred back to Surrey to form part of the Chelsham and Farleigh parish in Godstone Rural District and Hooley became part of Banstead Urban District."
oooooh - How many times have I written 'Penguin: Harmondsworth' in a reference list! And to think I never knew it was a village!
Hacton is less than two miles away. Never been there, never realised it was there and thought Hacton was the shops and houses across the river Ingrebourne.The bit about residents relatively unlikely to possess higher level educa­tional qualifications is about right. Must move there then. Very enlightening.
Dulwich goes one stage further, as its football team is called Dulwich Hamlet

Ham and Petersham probably meet your criteria, "disconnected from London's built-up area, generally surrounded by fields or undeveloped land", bounded as they are the river on two sides (from which they are separated by a quarter mile wide band of common land), and Richmond Park and Ham Common on the other two, and separated from each other by the grounds of Ham House. The only road in and out is the narrow and twisting A307, and the nearest stations are a mile away across the river in Teddington (by footbridge) or Twickenham (by ferry), although most people take the bus, or cycle, into Richmond.

On the other side of Richmond Park, and surrounded by Wimbledon Common and the Coombe Hill golf courses (and the Kingston bypass), is the Robin Hood estate in Kingston Vale - which I think also has the dubious distinction of being the place in London furthest from a station, being equidistant from Norbiton, Barnes, New Malden and Southfields.
Ham is very much connected to Kingston, but Petersham has all the qualities of a village, thanks.

And I'm not minded to add disconnected housing estates like Kingston Vale to a list of 'villages'.
Pratt's Bottom. Snrk.
Of course, if you send a letter to 1, The Village, London, it'll end up in Charlton, SE7 8UG.
I used to live in Ham, and we didn't feel part of Kingston - indeed it is part of the borough of Richmond.

However, the housing recently built on the site of the Hawker factory has now filled the gap between Ham and Kingston's Tudor estate, making Ham rather less detached than it used to be.
Indeed. I think the phrase "judgment and common sense" covers the exclusion of isolated housing estates; also of places like Biggin Hill which is just too big. A village is something that you recognise when you see it. Monken Hadley is not very well isolated from the Barnet sprawl, but it does feel like a village.
Yes, the road through the upper part of Charlton is simply called The Village. And it used to be a village in the proper sense, complete with a Jacobean mansion.

That's why I think it's fair that Dulwich Village is so-called. Blackheath has that moniker as well.
Mottingham in SE9 has always been referred to as a village.
Might Addington village sneak in to your definition? It’s just about surrounded by fields.
I used to live in Caterham - on - the - Hill, originally a village in every sense, and still called "the village" by locals to differentiate it from Caterham Valley (known locally as "The Valley", unsurprisingly.)

When the Guards Depot site was redeveloped a few years ago the developers named it "The Village" ( a complete misnomer as it is about a mile away from the original settlement), so Caterham now has two villages and a valley.
A fair amount of people living in Hampstead refer to it as The Village. This really annoys me.
Wimbledon Village - up the hill from the town centre around the station, has a villagey feel to it and is partly hemmed in by the Common and the tennis club's greenery, but does eventually blend into Putney Earlsfield.
Except Dulwich Village blatantly is a village. It even still has an actual post office.

"Dulwich" and "Dulwich Village" are not the same thing and it's probably centuries since they were.

And no, I do not own a house in Dulwich Village.
OK OK, I've taken Dulwich out of the last paragraph and replaced it with Highgate.

It's clear that a number of places which used to be villages (Dulwich, Wimbledon, Blackheath, Walthamstow, etc) have the right to continue to use the name. But that doesn't necessarily make them villages today.
I live in E18 and frequently drive out at the weekend, an old copy of Arthur Mee's volume on Essex in hand, to some village for a bit of a wander. Many of the entries are now part of a London borough. About a month ago I visited the Noak Hill you've listed (not to be confused with another Noak Hill just south of Billericay) and didn't twig that I was actually in Havering (just!).
I drove back home via the winding lanes of Horseman Side and Navestock Heath until I reached the old London Road (A113) and headed down towards Abridge. Despite the fact that it's all within earshot of the M25, it's just incredibly rural round there.
Ha! I've just read your entry for yesterday...from Noak Hill! I'm afraid I only come to your blog about once a week, then catch up on seven days' worth of entries...starting at the top of the page and working down.
Richard, thanks for that, gave me a chuckle it did.
DG one step ahead of you there!
Although it doesn't feel particularly villagey Coney Hall, between West Wickham and Addington, fits most of your criteria; it's surrounded by countryside on three sides and is separated from the main suburban sprawl by an A-road and a steep hill.
@ Scott - I always thought it sad that Midsomer Murders never had a Badger's Bottom.
I would say neither Nash nor Leaves Green have an identity to be called a village. Certainly not Nash.
OK, so Horns Green exists - I've seen the village sign. But I've now removed Nash from the list, thanks.










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