| Aldenham | |
Church of St John the Baptist, Aldenham |
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Aldenham
Aldenham shown within Hertfordshire |
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| Population | 373 |
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| OS grid reference | TQ138981 |
| District | Hertsmere |
| Shire county | Hertfordshire |
| Region | East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | WATFORD |
| Postcode district | WD25 8 |
| Dialling code | 01923 |
| Police | Hertfordshire |
| Fire | Hertfordshire |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
| UK Parliament | Hertsmere |
| List of places: UK • England • Hertfordshire | |
This article is about the village in Hertfordshire. For the London Transport Bus Overhaul Works, see Aldenham Works.
Aldenham is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, approx. three miles north-east of Watford and two miles from Radlett. 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.
In the Index of Multiple Deprivation, the ward of Aldenham East was ranked the least deprived ward out of 8414 in England, while Aldenham West also featured among the least deprived three per cent in the country.
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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. After the Reformation the lands were sold off to the highest bidders and Aldenham is probably smaller today than it was 500 years ago.
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.
Both the church and the village have been used in many movies, adverts and television programmes, being within easy travelling distance of Elstree Studios. These have included the film Confessions of a Window Cleaner, BBC television series Pathfinders, and the Coldplay music video for "Life in Technicolor II", to name but a few.
Although it gave its name to the Aldenham Bus Works owned by London Transport, Aldenham Works was actually located at nearby Elstree.
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.
The parish of Aldenham 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, 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.[1] 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 was subsequently used as a hospital for recovering soldiers. Later on was used for educational purposes, eventually becoming an annex to the University of Hertfordshire, formerly Hatfield Polytechnic. In 2003, the college site closed down, as it moved to a more centralised campus in Hatfield.
Between 2003 and 2006 Wall Hall was turned into a housing development, built by Octagon. The former student hostels, Binghams, along with the college library and other ancillary buildings, have now been demolished and a multi-million pound housing complex has been built in their place. Conversion of other buildings has also taken place. The development was awarded the Best New Development of 2006 by the Daily Mail and Bentley UK Property Awards and shortlisted as one of the best new developments at the World Property Awards.