Aldenham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aldenham is a village in Hertfordshire, England. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book and is one of Hertsmere's 14 conservation areas. This secluded little village remains unspoilt and the parish itself is largely unchanged since Saxon times when the majority of the land was owned by the Abbots of Westminster Abbey.

After the Reformation the lands were sold off to the highest bidders and Aldenham is probably smaller today than it was 500 years ago. The Church of St John the Baptist in Aldenham is seven hundred years old and there is good reason to believe that an earlier Saxon church stood on the site.

In 1940 enemy action damaged stained glass and removed the Hertfordshire Spike - the spire on the top of the tower. Restoration work was completed in 1951.

Close to the church stand a number of buildings of historical interest. The earliest of these is Aldenham Social Club - a late medieval hall house dating from around 1500. To the west of the churchyard stands Church Farm House (16th - 18th century) and to the east the old vicarage (now two dwellings), a fine example of early 18th century red brick architecture.

East of Aldenham village is Round Bush, a hamlet where three roads meet at a public house. On Hilfield Lane, Patchetts Green is a hamlet of several historic houses, including the Three Compasses public house, Little Patchetts Green Farm and Patchetts Farm.

It also has two British Public Schools: Aldenham School and the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys School (and associated girls school).

Also situated in Aldenham is Wall Hall. Wall Hall is a magnificent gothic revival mansion with a castellated façade created in the early nineteenth century for George Woodford Thelluson, a prosperous City banker mentioned in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The landscaped grounds reached their prime under John Pierpont Morgan Jnr, an American banker who bought the hall in 1910, where he regularly entertained the Royal Family, including the young Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

During World War Two, Wall Hall became the residence of the U.S. Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, and later on was used for educational purposes, eventually becoming the University of Hertfordshire.