Hertford
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hertford (standard pronunciations /'hɑtֽfəd/ and /'hɑֽfəd/; local pronunciation /'[h]ɑːʔֽfəd/) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is in the East Hertfordshire district of that county. It has a population today of about 24,000.
The name is Anglo Saxon and means the ford frequented by harts or stags.
The rivers Rib, Beane and Mimram join the River Lea at Hertford to flow south toward the Thames.
Hertford serves as a commuter town for London, with rail links from Hertford North to London King's Cross and Moorgate stations and from Hertford East to London Liverpool Street. The latter is by far the older link but is now slower and less frequent. Employment in the town is centred on County Hall (Hertfordshire County Council), Wallfields (East Hertfordshire District Council) and McMullens Brewery, one of a dwindling number of independent brewers in the UK.
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[edit] The town
The town retains very much a country-town feel, despite lying only 20 miles north of London. This is aided by a lack of large chain stores in the town, which is too small to support them, and by its proximity to larger towns such as Harlow and Stevenage where modern development has been focused.
In terms of supermarkets there is a Tesco, Waitrose and a Marks and Spencer Simply Food in the town as well as several Co-Ops on the town's outskirts. There is likely to be a new Sainsbury's store in the town which will be on the old McMullens Brewery site. Iceland has said it is looking for a new site in Hertford, having lost its previous location to M&S. Other national shops include Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy, WH Smith, Clintons, Woolworths, Thorntons and a Caffe Nero Coffee house. These retailers aside, there are not all the usual chain shops found in most high streets and this makes Hertford stand out from other "clone towns"; Hertford is widely thought to have kept its uniqueness unlike many British towns. The McDonald's in the town centre closed in September 2006, though the fast food retailer still has another restaurant just outside the town, on the A10/A414 junction in Rush Green. There are many pubs and the usual banks and building societies.
The town is beset by traffic despite the existence of the 1960s bypass called Gascoyne Way. The town centre is still a labyrinth of medieval streets with many timber-framed buildings hidden under later frontages, particularly in St Andrew Street.
The shared valley of the Lea and the Beane is called Hartham Common and this provides a large attractive park to one side of the town centre running towards Ware and lying below the ridge upon which Bengeo is situated.
There are numerous schools in Hertford: these include the Richard Hale School, Simon Balle School, and Sele School at secondary level, with primaries of Hollybush Primary School, Bengeo School, Morgans JMI, Abel Smith School and St Andrew's School.
[edit] Historical buildings
The Council of Hertford met in 673 at the instigation of Archbishop Theodore as the first Synod of the whole Church in England on the site which is now St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. It was at this meeting that the Roman and Celtic churches came to an agreement on the date to celebrate Easter.
The town has the remains of a castle, principally a motte. The castle's gatehouse, the central part of which dates to a rebuild by Edward IV in 1463, is the home to Hertford Town Council. There are several churches in the town, All Saints' and St Andrew's, are late and mid 19th century respectively. In the northern suburb of Bengeo lies St Leonard's, a two-celled Norman church of considerable architectural interest.
Hertford contains the oldest purpose-built Quaker Meeting House in the world, in use since 1670. The Parliament of England temporarily moved to Hertford during the Great Plague of London. This is why the main square in the town, Parliament Square, is so named. Conspiracy theories link Hertford to the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail.
The town of Meryton in the Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice is thought to have been based on Hertford.
[edit] Trivia
- The band Deep Purple formed in Hertford in 1968.
- Dani Filth, singer of Cradle of Filth was born in Hertford, but grew up in Ipswich
[edit] Nearby places
[edit] Town twinning
Évron, France
Hartford, Connecticut
Wildeshausen, Germany
