Knotty Green
Knotty Green is a hamlet in the parish of Penn in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills and, over the years, has become a leafy and prosperous part of Beaconsfield. Knotty Green and Beaconsfield are, however, separated by a parish and district council boundary. Knotty Green is in Chiltern District, whereas Beaconsfield is in South Bucks district. The centre of the old hamlet is still identifiable at the junction of Penn Road and Forty Green Road where there remains a remnant of the old green from which the hamlet took part of its name. The name of the village can be traced back to the 13th century. Knotty Green, or Nattuc as it was called in 1222, takes its name from Old English nattuc (rough grass of tussocks) that grew on the green.
The development that followed the arrival of the railway in Beaconsfield in 1906 increased the population of the parish as a whole by nearly 50 per cent in five years, but it was confined to the Penn Road and Forty Green Road. There was still an obvious dividing line between the parishes of Penn and Beaconsfield, where the boundary stream ran under the Penn Road—and where Beaconsfield's pavement and new houses stopped abruptly.
The Red Lion pub, which lies at the centre of the hamlet along with the home of Knotty Green Cricket Club and a children's playground, remains as the only pub in the village of Knotty Green and is one of only two commercial entities in the village—the other being the Vauxhall showroom opposite. The pub has an Enid Blyton Room, with a gallery of original prints and a library of books donated by members of the Enid Blyton Society. The children's author lived most of her life in a house called Green Hedges (since demolished) nearby.
Today, Val Doonican is among Knotty Green's rich and famous residents.