Chapter 13
ST. PAUL'S WALDEN (4 miles S.W. from Stevenage Station, G.N.R.) is a large and scattered parish; much of it is very picturesque. The church, which was restored twenty years ago, is of several styles, but contains little worthy of comment. Note the tablet on the W. wall of the chapel to Henry Stapleford and Dorothy his wife. "The said Henry was servant to Queen Elizabeth, King James and King Charles" (d. 1631). The manor was formerly called first _Waldene_, then Abbot's Walden, being the property of the abbots of St. Albans. _St. Paul's Walden Bury_, ½ mile S.W. from the church, is the seat of Lord Strathmore. Note the fine avenues in the park, commanding good views of the house. The walk S. to Whitwell, through the steep and twisted lane and across the bridge over the Maran, keeping the "bog" and cress beds on the right, is very pretty.
SANDON (3½ miles S.E. from Ashwell Station, G.N.R) has a flint church, probably late fourteenth century. Several features should be noted: (1) Perp. screen (oak) between nave and chancel; (2) old stained glass in windows of both aisles; (3) fine Jacobean oak pulpit; (4) old brass, with inscription which was imperfect 200 years back, to "Johannes Fitz Geoffery, Armiger" (d. 1480); (5) piscina in each aisle; (6) pinnacled and crocketted arches in chancel, over triple sedilia. The church was partially restored in 1875. The manor of _Sandone_ was owned by Saxon kings; Athelstan gave ten houses in the _vill_ to St. Paul's, London. The Old North Road to Royston is 2 miles E.
SANDRIDGE (2½ miles N.E. from St. Albans) is on the road to Wheathampstead, and is a thoroughly typical English village consisting, for the most part, of one street, with the parish church near its N.E. end. The parish stretches northwards to the Lea, and is very ancient; the _vill_ was given by Egfrith, a son of Offa, to St. Alban's Abbey. It owes its name to the nature of its soil. The church, one of the most ancient in the county, has known much restoration, but still retains Norman work. It was consecrated as a chapel a few years after the consecration of St. Alban's Abbey (1115); the chancel was rebuilt by Abbot John Moote (_circa_ 1400). The tower fell towards the end of the seventeenth century and the structure which took its place was pulled down and reconstructed in 1887. Note the old material in the apex, the Perp. windows in the aisles, the clerestoried Norman nave and the Norman font. There are N. and S. porches.
Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, derived his first title, Baron Sandridge, from this parish; the Jennings family, from which his wife Sarah was descended, possessed the manor for several generations. _Sandridge Bury_, N.W. from the village, is beautifully situated.
SARRATT (1½ mile N. from Chorley Wood Station, Met. Extension) is near the river Chess, on the Bucks border. The church is late Norman and is remarkable for the saddle-back roof of its tower, running N. and S., the only tower roof of its kind in Herts. The building is cruciform, of flint, dressed with Totternhoe and Caen stone, and has a square ambry, a very old piscina, and a double sedilia; the latter is E.E. Richard Baxter is said to have preached from the Jacobean pulpit. There are a few old memorials. The church is prettily situated, and a picturesque walk may be taken N.W. to Sarratt Bottom, thence N.E. to
SARRATT GREEN, which during the last two or three centuries has gradually outgrown Sarratt. Note the many fine old cottages on either side of the village green. Sarratt owes its name to Syret, a Saxon.
SAWBRIDGEWORTH (formerly Sabysford, Sabridgeworth, Saybrichesworth and now often called Sapsworth) lies at the S.E. extremity of the county, 4 miles S. from Bishop's Stortford. The district is not very diversified, but is open and pleasant. The history of the several old manor houses in the neighbourhood would fill a large volume; those of _Hyde Hall_ (E.) and _Pishiobury_ (S.) are engraved in Chauncy; the present mansion in Pishiobury[n] Park was built by Wyatt, and has a fine adjoining rosery. The church stands between the town and the station (G.E.R.); it has a good Perp. screen between the clerestoried Dec. nave and the chancel, and a large canopied piscina in the N. aisle. The brasses are numerous: note (1) to Sir John Leventhorpe (d. 1433) and Katherine his wife (d. 1431); the former was an executor to King Henry V.; (2) to several other members of the Leventhorpe family, too numerous to mention; (3) to Calpredus Jocelin (d. 147-), and his wives Katherine and Joan; (4) inscription on brass, which was long ago transcribed as follows:--
"Of your Charite Sey a Pater Nostre and an Ave For the Sowl of William Chaunce On whose Sowl Jesu have Mercy".
Several monuments and brasses are to the memory of persons buried elsewhere. Note the marble altar-tomb in chancel to John Jocelin or Jocelyn (d. 1525) and Philippa his wife.
_Shafton End_ and _Shafton-Hoe_ lie a little E. from the Cambridge Road, on the Essex border, about 4 miles S.E. from Royston.
_Shaw Green_ is 4 miles S.E. from Baldock, near _Julians Park_.
SHEEPHALL (2 miles N.N.E. from Knebworth Station, G.N.R.) is a little E. from the Great North Road. It is a small village. The church, E.E., is approached through a good lich-gate, and contains many memorials, including two sixteenth-century brasses to members of the Nodes family, one of which was Sergeant of the Buckhounds to Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary and Elizabeth (d. 1564).
SHENLEY (2 miles E. from Radlett Station, M.R.) is of interest to many for its fine old "lock-up," or cage, in the centre of the village. We are on high ground here, and the tower of St. Alban's Abbey is well seen above the trees to the N.W. The village is scattered along several converging roads, and the surrounding country is undulating and beautifully wooded. Turn down the lane opposite the Black Lion to reach the old church of St. Botolph, 1 mile N.N.W. from the cage. Note the venerable yews, and the quaint old grave-boards in the graveyard; also the altar-tomb to Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil of Wren, and the architect of St. Mary Woolnoth, Lombard Street (d. at Shenley, 1736). The church was partly rebuilt in the middle of the eighteenth century, when the tower was demolished and a structure of timber, with quadrangular tiled roof, eventually erected in its stead. This has disappeared, and the "old parish church" is now an oblong building of flints, chalk-faced, with tiled roof. _Porters_, in the park, a little W., was the residence of Admiral Lord Howe. _Salisbury Hall_, a gabled manor house with massive chimneys, surrounded by a moat, is Jacobean, and stands on the spot occupied successively by the older houses of the Montacutes, and of Sir John Cutts, Treasurer and Privy Councillor to Henry VIII. Eugene Aram visited the neighbourhood.
_Sleap's Hyde_ (½ mile S.E. from Smallford Station, G.N.R.) is a hamlet in the parish of Colney Heath.
_Smug Oak_, a few cottages, lies on the E. confines of Bricket Wood, ½ mile N.E. from that station, L.&N.W.R.
_Smyth's End_ adjoins Barley on the S. (_q.v._).
_Solesbridge Lane_, on the river Chess, is close to Chorley Wood.
_Southend_ and _Southend Green_ are hamlets, (1) adjoining Stevenage on the S., (2) ½ mile E. from Rushden.
_Spellbrook_ is a hamlet nearly midway between Sawbridgeworth and Bishop's Stortford.
_Stanborough_, on the Hatfield-Welwyn road, is midway between Hatfield and Brocket Hall Parks. The road which branches N.W. from the hamlet leads to the modern church at Lemsford (_q.v._).
STANDON has several claims to notice. It is a large village, 1 mile E. from the Old North Road. A little W., and on the other side of the railway, is the mansion which occupies the site of _Standon Lordship_, a fine old manor house, of which hardly a vestige remains. It was long owned by the Sadleir family, most illustrious of whom was Sir Ralph Sadleir (d. 1587), who fought at Pinkie. (See below.)
The church, largely Dec., still retains some Saxon foundations, and has singular features worthy of comment. The embattled tower is separate from the main structure, standing on the _S. side of the chancel_; the chancel is raised much higher than the nave, from which it is approached by a flight of steps; note the hagioscope on either side of the chancel arch. Within the chancel, on the S. side, stands the fine monument to Sir Ralph Sadleir, consisting of altar-tomb and marble effigy in armour, recumbent beneath a canopy supported by Corinthian pillars; note the relieved figures of his sons and daughters on the lower part of the tomb, also, suspended above, two helmets and other relics. The standard pole captured at Pinkie rests beside the effigy. There are also several old brasses. Close to the village, at Old Hall Green, are the Roman Catholic College, Chapel and Cemetery; the college was founded at Twyford, Hants, late in the seventeenth century, from whence it was removed, first to Standon Lordship, and then (1769) to Old Hall. The library is large and valuable.
STANSTEAD ABBOTS may be easily reached from St. Margaret's Station, G.E.R., ½ mile W. It was a place of considerable trade at the time of the Conquest. The old flint church is E.E., with a chapel on the N. side, built by Edward Baesh--whose monument it contains--in 1577. He was lord of the manor of Stanstead Abbots and "General Surveyor of the Victuals for the Navy Royal and Marine affairs within the Realms of England and Ireland" (d. 1587). He married Jane, a daughter of Sir Ralph Sadleir. (See Standon.) The six Baesh Almshouses were built and endowed by his son, Sir Edward Baesh. Several brasses, some mutilated, are in the church, notably one near the altar-rails to William Saraye or Saxaye, late of "Grais In" (d. 1581). _Stansteadbury_, a huge gabled mansion, largely rebuilt, stands in extensive grounds, and was the home of the Baeshs and of their successors, the Feildes.
_Stapleford_, a village on the river Beane, is 3 miles N.N.W. from Hertford. The church is Perp. with N. porch; it was enlarged nearly fifty years ago, when the present tower was added.
STEVENAGE, a town on the Great North Road, has shifted from its original position. It once stood farther N.E. and close to the church; but after a terrible fire which destroyed a large proportion of its houses the village was gradually rebuilt more directly on the famous old coaching road. The first paper mill in England is said to have been built in this parish. Several of its inns were standing when the regular coaches were on the road.
The old Church of St. Nicholas, ¾ mile N.E., is reached through an avenue of limes and chestnuts, headed by a new lich-gate. It is largely E.E. Note the octagonal pillars and pointed arches of the nave and the two small chapels attached to the chancel. The font at the W. end is under an Early Norman arch. There are several modern windows of stained glass, and a good brass, early sixteenth century, in the chancel. The church at the S. end of the town was designed by Sir A. W. Blomfield about sixty years back, but has since been much enlarged. Half a mile farther S. on the main road are six almost equidistant mounds, thought to be of Danish origin.
At the old Castle Inn, E. side of High Street, great numbers of persons have been shown on the rafters in a barn the coffin of Henry Trigg, whose will was proved in 1724; one of its provisions was that his body should not be buried, but disposed of in that way. Little more than a mile N.W. from the station, at Redcoats Green, stood, until 1893, "Elmwood House," the home of the Hermit of Hertfordshire. This man, James Lucas, was descended from a good family, but for reasons never satisfactorily explained he lived alone, and in a most filthy condition, from October, 1849, to April, 1874. A concise and reliable account of this peculiar man is issued by Messrs. Paternoster and Hales of Hitchin.
STOCKING PELHAM, on the Essex border (5½ miles N.E. from Braughing Station, G.E.R.), has an E.E. church dating from early fourteenth century; it has no tower. The chancel was restored in 1864. The manor is very ancient, and was held by Simon de Furneaux in the reign of Edward I., but the village now shows little of interest.
_Swangles_ (2¼ miles N.E. from Ware) is a small hamlet a little S. from the river Rib.
_Symonds Green_ (¾ mile S.W. from Stevenage Station, G.N.R.) is a hamlet between the Great North Road and the ruins of Minsden Chapel.
_Symonds Hyde_ Farm and Wood are in a pleasant district, very diversified, a little S.W. from Brocket Hall Park. Smallford and Hatfield Station (G.N.R.) are from 2 to 3 miles S. and S.W. respectively.
_Tea Green_, a hamlet near the Beds border, lies between Breachwood Green and Putteridge Bury.
_Tednambury_ and _Tednam Mill_ are on the river Stort and right on the Essex border. Sawbridgeworth Station (G.E.R.) is 1 mile S.
TEWIN (about 2 miles S.E. from Welwyn Station, G.N.R.) is most charmingly situated on high ground above the river Maran. The village is divided into the Upper and Lower Green; the church, ¼ mile from the latter, stands on a hill that slopes steeply to the river. Note the altar-tomb in churchyard to Lady Anne Grimston (d. 1710). The tomb is forced asunder by ash and sycamore trees growing together, a circumstance popularly attributed to the sceptical opinions of Lady Anne, who is said to have denied the doctrine of immortality, and to have expressed the wish that such a phenomenon should happen if the doctrine were indeed true. The church, which looks very old, is of flint, brick and rubble, with a large diamond-faced clock on one side of the tower. In the S. porch (entrance blocked up) is the marble monument to Sir Joseph Sabine (d. 1739); who fought under Marlborough. Note the pyramid, 15 feet high, and the recumbent effigy, dressed as a Roman soldier. There is also in the S. aisle a good brass to one Thomas Pygott (d. 1610), and a slab with an imperfect Lombardic inscription to Walter de Louthe. _Tewin Water_, in the park, N.W., is prettily surrounded by trees. Beautiful walks may be taken in almost any direction, especially in the trend of the river Maran towards Digswell and Welwyn.
_Tharbes End_ is 1½ mile N.W. from Sawbridgeworth.
THEOBALD'S PARK. (See Waltham Cross.)
THERFIELD (3 miles S.E. from Ashwell Station, G.N.R.) was, according to Dugdale's _Monasticon Anglicanum_, given to the church of Ramsey by Etheric, Bishop of Sherbourne, about 980, and Chauncy "guesses" that an abbot of Ramsey built Therfield church. The present church is a modern Dec. structure, a little W. from the centre of the scattered village. The _Icknield Way_ skirts the parish on the N. and many Roman relics have been discovered in the neighbourhood. There are also several tumuli in the parish, which lies on high, chalky soil.
THORLEY (2 miles S.W. from Bishop's Stortford) can show a good Norman doorway on the S. side of the little church; note the dog-tooth moulding and twisted nook-shafts. The remainder of the building is largely E.E.; there is a piscina in the chancel and--at the W. entrance--a niche for a holy water basin. The font, as at Bishop's Stortford, was a modern discovery. Thorley Wash and Thorley Street are between the church and the G.E.R.
THROCKING (2 miles N.W. from Buntingford Station, G.E.R.) stands on a hill. The church is E.E. and Dec., except the upper part of the tower, of brick, added in 1660. The monuments include one by Nollekens and one by Rysbrack, to members of the Elwes family, of whose manor house there are still some traces adjacent to the _Hall Farm_. The walk N.W. to Baldock, by way of Julians Park (7 to 8 miles), leads across open, breezy country.
THUNDRIDGE and WADE'S MILL are on the Old North Road, about 2 miles N. from Ware. The river Rib crosses the road at Wade's Mill. The present parish church, E.E. in style, was built about seventy years ago, close to the bridge over the Rib; the tower of the old church; "Little St. Mary's," with a Norman arch stands in the lower meadows ½ mile E. On the W. side of the Old North Road, close to Wade's Mill, a low obelisk marks the spot where Thomas Clarkson resolved to give his life to the cause of the abolition of slavery.
_Titmore Green_ is 1½ mile N.W. from Stevenage Station, G.N.R.
_Tittenhanger._ (See London Colney.)
_Todd's Green_ adjoins Titmore Green.
_Tonwell_, on the main road from Ware or Stevenage, is a hamlet near the river Rib. It has a modern chapel-of-ease. Ware is 2½ miles S.E.
TOTTERIDGE, on the Middlesex border, is 1 mile W. from the Station (G.N.R.). Richard Baxter lived here for a short time. The neighbourhood is well wooded and very pleasing to the eye. The church, on the hill-top, dates only from 1790; but the site was occupied by an earlier structure. The memorials are of no historic interest; but near the enormous yew tree in the churchyard stands the tomb of the first Lord Cottenham (d. 1851). Near by, too, lies Sir Lucas Pepys, physician to George III. (d. 1830). _Totteridge Park_, W. from the village, was the residence of Baron Bunsen, and of the above-mentioned Lord Cottenham; the large, plain structure in which they lived, recently in part rebuilt, was erected about a century ago, taking the place of the fine old manor house, for some generations the home of the Lee family. At _Copped Hall_, near the church, the late Cardinal Manning was born in 1808.
TRING is the most westerly place of any importance in Herts. The station (L.&N.W.R.) is nearly 2 miles E. from the town, which is sheltered on the N.W. by the chalk hills, a fresh spur of which crops out 3 mile N.E. at Aldbury (_q.v._). The church (Perp.) stands near the centre of the town and is fortunate in having been restored under the direction of Mr. Bodley in 1882. It is an embattled, flint structure; the tower has a corner turret and is, like that at Hitchin, unusually massive. Note (1) the clustered columns of the nave, (2) the quaint corbels, (3) the large, imposing monument to Sir William Gore and his wife (d. 1707 and 1705 respectively); Sir William was Lord Mayor of London; (4) good Perp. windows in each aisle.
Tring was formerly a considerable centre of the straw-plait industry, which is still pursued to a less extent. The place is of great antiquity, _Treung_ hundred dating from the days of Alfred the Great. William I. gave it to Robert Earl of Ewe, and Stephen kindly bestowed it upon the monks of Faversham, "in perpetual Alms for the Health of the Souls of Maud his Queen and all faithful People". Edward II. granted to Tring market rights.
_Tring Park_ (property of Hon. N. C. Rothschild) is surrounded by perhaps the most exquisite woods--largely of beech--in the whole county. Much altered in modern times, it is said to have been designed by Wren, and to have been visited by Charles II. The park is well kept, and contains many living curiosities placed here by Lord Rothschild, a lover of natural history. The _Museum_, at the top of Akeman Street, containing a fine zoological collection, is the outcome of his lordship's energy and benevolence. The _Museum House_, to which it is attached, is a prettily designed structure of red brick, with gables.
_Tring, Little_, is a hamlet 1¼ mile N.W. from the town, and Tring Grove, a hamlet 1¼ mile N.E. The former is near the large reservoirs, upon which several of the rare birds mentioned in the Introduction (Section IV.) were observed.
_Trowley Bottom_ (3 miles N.W. from Redbourn Station, M.R.) is a hamlet a little S. from Flamstead, in one of the most thoroughly rural districts in the county. The Roman _Watling Street_ (St. Albans-Dunstable road) is 1 mile N.E.
_Turnford_ (1¼ mile S.W. from Broxbourne Station, G.E.R.) is a hamlet in Cheshunt parish, on the New River. _Broxbourne Bury Park_ is 1 mile N.
_Two Waters_ owes its name to its position at the junction of two small rivers--the Gade and the Bulbourne. It is in Hemel Hempstead parish, and about 1 mile E. from Boxmoor Station.
_Tyttenhanger._ (See Tittenhanger.)
_Upwick Green_ (4 miles N.W. from Bishop's Stortford) is a hamlet on the Essex border. _Hadham Hall_ (see Little Hadham) is 1 mile S.
VERULAM. Of the old Roman _municipium_ (_Verulamium_) there now remains above ground little more than some large fragments of crumbling wall in the valley of the Ver, immediately S.W. from St. Albans. Passing under the old Gatehouse and crossing the bridge at the Silk Mill the visitor, instead of turning right and following the course of the Ver, should keep straight on and pass the small gate into Verulam Woods. On his right as he follows the broad footpath will be the outer E. wall of the Roman city; on his left what appears a long gorge, overgrown by bushes and trees of many species, was once the _fosse_. Note the great thickness and solidity of the walls, and the tile-like bricks, similar to those in the Abbey tower, mingled with flints. Presently both wall and fosse turn sharply W. and may be followed in that direction for a considerable distance. The walls may also be traced at other spots farther W., particularly a large mass known as Gorhambury Block, believed to mark the boundary of the _municipium_ in that direction.
It has been mentioned in the Introduction (Section IX.) that the only Roman theatre known to have existed in England stood in this neighbourhood. Its remains were discovered rather more than seventy years ago in a field immediately W. from St. Michael's Church; nothing is now to be seen, for the excavations have been again covered. The discovery included that of the stage, somewhat narrow, the _auditorium_, with many rows of seats, and portions of the frescoed walls. Many coins were found among the ruins.
Mention must be made of the fact that the Roman _Verulamium_ was the scene of the awful massacre in the time of Boadicea, when the Queen of the Iceni, with a great number of followers, slew alike the British and Roman inhabitants and partially destroyed the city (A.D. 61). An account of this is in the _Annals_ of Tacitus. The place was subsequently rebuilt and occupied by the Saxons, who called it _Watlingceaster_, or _Werlamceaster_.
_Wade's Mill._ (See Thundridge.)
_Wakely_ (2 miles W. from Westmill Station, G.E.R.) is a hamlet in Westmill parish, consisting of a farm and a few cottages.
WALKERN (4½ miles E. from Stevenage) is a large village, with many picturesque nooks and cottages. The river Beane skirts it on the E. side. The manor is very ancient; Chauncy speaks of "Walkerne" as a town, and mentions a mill which stood in his day (1632-1719) at its S. end, presumably where Walkern Mill now stands. The church, on a knoll sloping to the Beane, is mostly Perp., but retains Norman work in the S. aisle; the chancel is modern, E.E. in style. The effigy in Purbeck marble in a recess of S. wall, of a knight in chain mail, is thought to represent one of the Lanvalei family. If so, it forms an interesting link with a remote past, for in the reign of King John one Alan Basset paid a hundred marks to that monarch, and gave him a palfrey "that his daughter might marry the heir of William de Lanvalley". There are also effigies on brass to the Humberstone family (sixteenth century). _Walkern Hall_ (1 mile S.E.) stands in a small but pretty park; _Walkern Bury_ (1 mile E.) can still show some remains of a castle.