Letchworth Garden City, more commonly Letchworth, is a town in Hertfordshire, England. The town's name is taken from one of the three villages it surrounded (the other two being Willian and Norton) - all of which featured in the Domesday Book. The land used was first purchased by Quakers who had intended to farm the area and build a Quaker community.[citation needed] They very quickly discovered the soil to be chalky and of poor agricultural use. The Garden City was founded in 1903 by Ebenezer Howard, was one of the first new towns, and is the world's first Garden City. Its development inspired another Garden City project at Welwyn Garden City, as well as many other smaller projects worldwide (Canberra, the Australian capital was influenced by its design concepts)and Hellerau, Germany, and had great influence on future town planning and the New Towns movement. Today it has a population of around 33,600.