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Hertfordshire
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Hertfordshire ( , abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.
The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire (with the borough of Luton), Cambridgeshire and Essex.
name Hertford is derived from the Anglo-Saxon heort ford, meaning deer crossing (of a watercourse).
The name Hertfordshire first appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011.
Deer feature prominently in many county emblems.
The area has a history dating back to the Middle Stone Age.
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Hertfordshire ( , abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.
The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire (with the borough of Luton), Cambridgeshire and Essex.
History
Hertfordshire was originally the area assigned to a fortress constructed at Hertford under the rule of Edward the Elder in 913.
The name Hertford is derived from the Anglo-Saxon heort ford, meaning deer crossing (of a watercourse).
The name Hertfordshire first appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011.
Deer feature prominently in many county emblems.
The area has a history dating back to the Middle Stone Age. It was first farmed during the Neolithic period and permanent habitation appeared at the beginning of the Bronze Age. This was followed by tribes settling in the area during the Iron Age.
Following the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, Hertfordshire adapted quickly to the Roman way of life; one of the new towns, Verulamium, became the third largest town in Roman Britain. After the Romans left Britain, the Anglo-Saxons occupied the area, creating their own towns, including the county town of Hertford.
The Norman conquest in 1066 reached its climax at Berkhamsted where William the Conqueror accepted the final Saxon surrender. After the Norman conquest, Hertfordshire was used for some of the new Norman castles at Bishop's Stortford and at the royal residence of Berkhamsted.
The Domesday Book recorded the county as having nine hundreds. Tring and Danais became one, Dacorum, from (Danis Corum or Danish rule harking back to a Viking not Saxon past). The other seven were Braughing, Broadwater, Cashio, Edwinstree, Hertford, Hitchin and Odsey.
As London grew, Hertfordshire became conveniently close to the English capital; much of the area was owned by the nobility and aristocracy, this patronage helped to boost the local economy. However, the greatest boost to Hertfordshire came during the Industrial Revolution, after which the population rose dramatically. In 1903, Letchworth became the world's first garden city and Stevenage became the first town to redevelop under the New Towns Act 1946.
From the 1920s until the late 1980s, the town of Borehamwood was home to one of the major British film studio complexes, including the MGM-British Studios. Many well-known films were made here including the first three Star Wars movies (IV, V, & VI). The studios generally used the name of Elstree (the adjoining village).
In early December 2005 the 2005 Hemel Hempstead fuel depot explosions occurred at the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal.
In 2012, the town of Waltham Cross, within the borough of Broxbourne, will host the canoe and kayak slalom events of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
Following a proposal put forward by The Welwyn Garden Heritage Trust, town-planner Andrés Duany has suggested that designated "Garden Villages" could be built within Hertfordshire to relieve some of the pressure for new homes, with perhaps a third Garden City to follow.
Geography
Hertfordshire is located immediately to the north of Greater London and is part of the East of England Government Office Region. Much of the county is part of the London commuter belt. To the east of Hertfordshire is Essex, to the west is Buckinghamshire and to the north are Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
The county's boundaries were fixed by the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844 which eliminated exclaves. They were amended when, in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963, East Barnet Urban District and Barnet Urban District were abolished and their area was transferred to Greater London to form part of the present-day London Borough of Barnet. At the same time the Potters Bar Urban District of Middlesex was transferred to Hertfordshire.
The highest point in the county is 803 feet (245 m) above sea level, a quarter mile (400 m) from the village of Hastoe near Tring.
As part of a 2002 marketing campaign, the plant conservation charity Plantlife chose the Pasqueflower as Hertfordshire's county flower.
Geology
The rocks of Hertfordshire belong to the great shallow syncline known as the London Basin. The beds dip in a south-easterly direction towards the syncline's lowest point roughly under the River Thames. The most important formations are the Cretaceous Chalk, exposed as the high ground in the north and west of the county, forming the Chiltern Hills and the younger Palaeocene, Reading Beds and Eocene, London Clay which occupy the remaining southern part. The eastern half of the county was covered by glaciers during the Ice Age and has a superficial layer of glacial boulder clays.
Natural resources
Despite the spread of built areas, much of the county is given over to agriculture. One product, now largely defunct, was water-cress, based in Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted supported by reliable, clean rivers.
Some quarrying of sand and gravel occurs in the St. Albans area. In the past, clay has supplied local brick-making and still does in Bovingdon, just south-west of Hemel Hempstead. The chalk that is the bedrock of much of the county provides an aquifer that feeds streams and is also exploited to provide water supplies for much of the county and beyond. Chalk has also been used as a building material and, once fired, the resultant lime was spread on agricultural land to improve fertility. The mining of chalk since the early 18th century has left unrecorded underground galleries that occasionally collapse unexpectedly and endanger buildings.
Fresh water is supplied to London from Ware, using the New River built by Hugh Myddleton and opened in 1613. Local rivers, although small, supported developing industries such as paper production at Nash Mills.
Urban areas
Landmarks
Below is a list of places, large and small, to visit in Hertfordshire.
- Aldenham Country Park
- Ashridge estate and house. The Neo Gothic house by James Wyatt, is a Grade 1 listed building (and is not open to the public) but the estate is National Trust land.
- Bridgewater Monument built in 1832 in memory of Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. tall and open to the public to ascend to the top.
- Berkhamsted Castle
- de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre, between London Colney and South Mimms
- Gardens of the Rose, Chiswell Green, near St Albans. Home of the Royal National Rose Society
- Hatfield
- Henry Moore Foundation, Much Hadham – sculpture park on the work of Henry Moore
- Knebworth House, of country park, venue of regular rock and pop festivals.
- Magic Roundabout (Hemel Hempstead) a complex road junction.
- Royston Cave in Royston town centre
- St Albans
- Shaw's Corner, Ayot St Lawrence – home of George Bernard Shaw
- Stevenage – the first UK New Town
- Therfield Heath – a local nature reserve in the north of the county.
- Welwyn Viaduct to the north of Welwyn Garden City.
- Rye House Gatehouse in Hoddesdon (part of the Rye House Plot to assassinate King Charles II).
- Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, Tring. One of the finest collections of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles and insects in the UK.
Transport
Hertfordshire lies across routes between London and the North, the North-West and the Midlands and as a consequence it is well-served by road and rail routes and, in the past, by canals.
The county has always been traversed by some of the principal roads in England, originally the A1 (Great North Road) to Yorkshire and Scotland, A5 (Watling Street) to North Wales, A6 to North West England and the A41 (Sparrows Herne turnpike) to the Midlands and now the M1, M11, A1(M) and the M25.
Principal rail routes lie through Stevenage to Yorkshire and Scotland, and through Watford to the Midlands, Wales, the North West and Glasgow. Lesser routes serve St. Albans (and the East Midlands) and Royston (to Cambridge and Norwich). Commuter routes supplement the through routes and the London Underground extends to Watford.
Two international airports lie just outside the county Stansted and Luton. At Elstree, there is a busy airfield for light aircraft.
The Grand Union Canal passes west Hertfordshire, through Watford, Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted.
Education
- See also: List of schools in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire has 26 independent schools and 73 state secondary schools.
The state secondary schools are entirely comprehensive, although 7 schools in the south and southwest of the county are partially selective (see Education in Watford).
All state schools have sixth forms, and there are no sixth form colleges.
The tertiary colleges, each with multiple campuses, are Hertford Regional College, North Hertfordshire College, Oaklands College and West Herts College.
The University of Hertfordshire is a modern university based largely in Hatfield. It has more than 23,000 students.
Hertfordshire in Literature
Hertfordshire is the location of Jack Worthing's country house in Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest and the primary setting of Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice.
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