Aldenham is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in Hertfordshire, north-east of

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

and southwest of

Radlett Radlett is a village in Hertfordshire, England, between Elstree and St Albans on Watling Street, with a population of 8,042. It is in the council district of Hertsmere in the south of the county, and is covered by two wards; Aldenham East and ...

. It was mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

and is one of

Hertsmere Hertsmere is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Borehamwood. Other settlements in the borough include Bushey, Elstree, Radlett and Potters Bar. The borough borders the three north London ...

's 14 conservation areas. The village has eight pre-19th-century

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

itself is largely unchanged, though buildings have been rebuilt, since Saxon times when the majority of the land was owned by the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...

s of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

. In the

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, 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.

forms the eastern part of the civil parish.

History

For most of recorded history Aldenham was administered together with the nearby settlement of

(or at least, the western part of that village), which until the modern era was of comparable size. In 1086 in the Domesday Book, Aldenham parish appears to have straddled the boundary of two ancient hundreds: Danish Hundred (East of North Watford, North of Patchetts Green) and St Albans Hundred (South of Hanstead). The Domesday surveyors were recording a property ownership dispute that had been ongoing for three centuries regarding heavily forested land. The Church of St

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

in Aldenham village is seven hundred and fifty years old and there is good reason to believe that an earlier Saxon church stood on the site. After the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

the lands were sold off to the highest bidders and Aldenham is probably smaller today than it was 500 years ago. In 1940, a German air attack 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 films, advertisements and television programmes, being within easy travelling distance of

Elstree Studios Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and demolished British film studios and television studios based in or around the town of Borehamwood and village of Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Production studios ha ...

. These have included the film ''

Confessions of a Window Cleaner ''Confessions of a Window Cleaner'' is a 1974 British sex comedy film, directed by Val Guest.Leach, p.132 Like the other films in the ''Confessions'' series; ''Confessions of a Pop Performer'', ''Confessions of a Driving Instructor'' and ''Con ...

'',

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

television series '' Pathfinders'', and the

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music video for "

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", to name but a few. Although it gave its name to the Aldenham Bus Works owned by London Transport,

Aldenham Works The Aldenham Works, or Aldenham Bus Overhaul Works, was the main Buses in London, London Transport bus overhaul works. It was located on the edge of the Hertfordshire village of Elstree and not in Aldenham. In its heyday, 50 buses a week were ...

was actually located at nearby Elstree.

Hamlets

Round Bush

Round Bush is also on the

B462 road B46 may refer to: * Bundesstraße 46, a German road * B46 (New York City bus), a bus line in Brooklyn * B46 nuclear bomb * HLA-B46, a HLA-B serotype * B46, the Taimanov variation of the Sicilian Defence chess opening * Convair XB-46 The Convai ...

, and lies immediately to the east, less than away. Its population size and number of buildings make it a smaller settlement. However, Round Bush has one pub A more average (smaller) size hamlet, the centre with the vast majority of the homes due to surrounding cultivated larger sized farms – is where three roads meet at a public house. Letchmore Heath - The Green

Letchmore Heath

This is the largest hamlet, and is southeast, it is slightly larger in population size than the village itself, see Letchmore Heath.

Patchetts Green

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 other listed buildings here are: Delrow Cottage, Delrow

Almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

s and Garden Cottage Crossways Cottage is just northeast of the Infant School and almshouses and is opposite the junction of the lane leading to Letchmore Heath.

Other landmarks

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 The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples wer ...

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. The parish of Aldenham also has two British

public school Public school may refer to: * State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government * Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...

Aldenham School Aldenham School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged eleven to eighteen, located between Elstree and the village of Aldenham in Hertfordshire, England. There is also a preparatory school for pupils from the ages of five to ele ...

and the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys School (and associated

girls school Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...

). Wall Hall is a magnificent gothic revival mansion with a castellated façade created in the early nineteenth century.

Sporting and leisure amenities

The golf and country park is central to the village in Church Lane. Aldenham Country Park is council-owned land, which is some distance away from the old village, closer to the two southern hamlets; it has a lake, Hillfield Reservoir, and is south of Letchmore Heath. Directly south of the country park is Aldenham Sailing Club which uses

Aldenham Reservoir Aldenham Reservoir is situated in the parish of Elstree and Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, England, about one mile (1.6 km) to the west of the village of Elstree. It is the source of the stream, Tykes Water, that runs north through Radle ...

, a lake next to Elstree. Aldenham Cricket Club (ACC) was founded in 1972. Aldenham has been playing cricket for over 40 years in the Parish. Hosted by the Aldenham Social Club, Aldenham Cricket Club has won the Watford Observer Plate on two occasions, the Hertfordshire Village Trophy, and won the league in the last two years.

Notable people

* Richard Platt (died 1600), brewer, founder of

* Sir Adolphus Dalrymple (1784–1866) lived at Delrow House, Aldenham.Stephen Wood
Dalrymple, Sir Adolphus John, second baronet (1784–1866)
''

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'' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2004)

References

External links

Aldenham (A Guide to Old Hertfordshire)
* {{authority control Villages in Hertfordshire Hertsmere Civil parishes in Hertfordshire