Herts and Essex Observer. 05 February 1981
Quendon, It's one of the smallest parishes in the country and you'd be hard pushed to pinpoint the beginning, the middle and the end of it, but there's a pub before you get to it and another as you leave, and in between there's a church and a lot of staunchly independent residents.
There are about 150 of them and they wholeheartedly agree that Quendon should stay as Quendon. They don't want to become part of Rickling.
For long Quendon's been "somewhere on the A11". You pass it in less than 60 seconds. With the opening of the M11, the thundering, continuous traffic has dwindled. Quendon is at peace.
Informally it is tied to Rickling. The two are knitted together in a way you'll find possible only in rural England. To say one side of the street is in Rickling and the other is in Quendon in not actually strictly correct. Some bits are and some are not!
Social events are a combined affair, even the parish council looks after both, and there's one village hall. But that's where Quendon people have drawn the line, having already resisted one attempt to combine the two villages.
Looking at the village from the air the first impression is how heavily wooded it is. On the ground it's the same, you are never far from a tall wellingtonia, a cedar, limes and hornbeams.
The Chequers public house at one end is in Ugley and the Coach and Horses at the other end is in Rickling. There was a Kings Head in the middle, in either Rickling or Quendon, but the lovely old beamed black and white building is now a private home: the tablet on the front shows 1721.
The Coach and Horses goes back to around the same time, says smiling landlord Mr Bill Yates. "I have no customers, they are all paying friends. Quendon is a lovely village with really marvellous people".
He and his wife, Marie have run the house for the past three years. They went there after Bill had served in the Royal Navy, the fire service and had become a professional chef.
| Premises | Pic? | Text? |
| Coach & Horses, Quendon Street, Rickling | No | Yes |
| Cricketers' Arms, Rickling | Yes | Yes |
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