Chorleywood is a village and civil parish in the Three Rivers District, Hertfordshire, on the border with Buckinghamshire, approximately 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Charing Cross.

In 2004, a study by The Social Disadvantage Research Centre at the University of Oxford named Chorleywood as the “happiest place” to live in the UK.

More recently, Chorleywood has been ranked as the “least deprived” area in the country by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

[4][5] Settlement at Chorleywood dates to the Paleolithic era when the plentiful flint supply led to swift development of tools by man.

[6] Though variants have been proposed, the name has been derived from the Anglo-Saxon leah, meaning a clearing or a wood, of the ceorla or peasants.

The Turnpike Act (1663) gave Chorleywood a chance to exploit its strategic position, allowing locals the opportunity to charge civilians to use the road from Hatfield to Reading.

In 1892, the house was bought by Lady Ela Sackville Russell, eldest daughter of the 9th Duke of Bedford.

She modified and enlarged the house turning the grounds into a model estate with market gardens.

The Common is a County Heritage Site, a Conservation Area and a Local Nature Reserve with significant biodiversity and rich in fauna and flora, fungi, birds and wildlife.

[13] "Christchurch, the parish church and a local landmark, stands facing the Common on the A404.

[16] The first meeting of Chorleywood Parish Council was held on 16 April 1898 at the village school, with Charles Barnes being appointed the first chairman.

[24] Chorleywood has grown in the past century following the extension of the Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met).

Chorleywood station is in Zone 7 of the London Underground Metropolitan line, and is situated between Rickmansworth and Chalfont and Latimer.