Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the
home counties
The home counties are the counties of England that surround London. The counties are not precisely defined but Buckinghamshire and Surrey are usually included in definitions and Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent are also often included ...
in southern
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It borders
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...
and
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...
to the north,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
to the east,
Greater London to the south, and
Buckinghamshire to the west. For government statistical purposes, it forms part of the
East of England region.
Hertfordshire covers . It derives its name – via the name of the
county town of
Hertford – from a
hart
Hart often refers to:
* Hart (deer)
Hart may also refer to:
Organizations
* Hart Racing Engines, a former Formula One engine manufacturer
* Hart Skis, US ski manufacturer
* Hart Stores, a Canadian chain of department stores
* Hart's Reptile Wo ...
(stag) and a
ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
, as represented on the county's coat of arms and on the
flag.
Hertfordshire County Council
Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England, the United Kingdom. After the 2021 election, it consists of 78 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, ...
is based in Hertford, once the main
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...
and the current county town. The largest settlement is
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, and ...
.
Since 1903
Letchworth
Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 33,249.
Letchworth ...
has served as the prototype
garden city;
Stevenage became the first town to expand under
post-war Britain's
New Towns Act of 1946.
In 2013 Hertfordshire had a population of about 1,140,700, with
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Developed after the Second World War as a new ...
,
Stevenage,
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, and ...
and
St Albans (the county's only
''city'') each having between 50,000 and 100,000 residents.
Welwyn Garden City
Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...
,
Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon () is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, lying entirely within the London Metropolitan Area and Greater London Urban Area. The area is on the River Lea and the Lee Navigation along with the New River.
Hoddesdon ...
and
Cheshunt
Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, ...
are close behind with around 47,000 residents.
Elevations are higher in the north and west, reaching more than in the
Chilterns near
Tring
Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...
. The county centres on the headwaters and upper valleys of the rivers
Lea
Lea or LEA may refer to:
Places Australia
* Lea River, Tasmania, Australia
* Lake Lea, Tasmania, from which the Lea River flows
* RAAF Base Learmonth, IATA airport code "LEA"
England
* Lea, Cheshire, a civil parish
* Lea, Derbyshire, a set ...
and the
Colne
Colne () is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Pendle in Lancashire, England. Located northeast of Nelson, north-east of Burnley, east of Preston and west of Leeds.
The town should not be confused with the unrelated Colne Val ...
; both flow south, and each is accompanied by a canal. Hertfordshire's undeveloped land is mainly agricultural, with much of it protected by
green-belt policies.
Services
Service may refer to:
Activities
* Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty
* Civil service, the body of employees of a government
* Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...
have become the largest sector of the county's economy. Hertfordshire is well served with motorways and railways for access to London, the
Midlands and the
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
.
See the
List of places in Hertfordshire
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
and also
List of settlements in Hertfordshire by population
This is a list of settlements in Hertfordshire ordered by population based on the results of the 2001 and 2011 censuses. In 2011 there were 35 settlements with 5,000 or more inhabitants in Hertfordshire. The next United Kingdom census will tak ...
articles for extensive lists of local places and districts.
History
The county's landmarks span many centuries, ranging from the
Six Hills
The Six Hills are a collection of Roman barrows situated alongside the old Great North Road on Six Hills Common in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. They are classed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and are protected by law. They form the lar ...
in
Stevenage built by local inhabitants during the
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
period, to
Leavesden Film Studios
Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden is an studio complex in Leavesden in Watford, Hertfordshire, in South East England. Formerly known as Leavesden Film Studios and still colloquially known as Leavesden Studios or simply Leavesden, it is a film an ...
. The volume of intact medieval and
Tudor buildings surpasses London, in places in well-preserved
conservation areas, especially in
St Albans, which includes remains of the Roman town of
Verulamium
Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon ...
.
In 913, Hertfordshire was the area assigned to a fortress constructed at
Hertford under the rule of
Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder (17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin ...
. Hertford is derived from the
Anglo-Saxon ''heort ford,'' meaning
deer
Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...
crossing (of a watercourse). The name Hertfordshire is first recorded in the ''
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' in 1011. Deer feature in many county emblems. Many of the names of the current settlements date back to the Anglo-Saxon period, with many featuring standard placename suffixes attributed to the Anglo-Saxons: "ford", "ton", "den", "bourn", "ley", "stead", "ing", "lett", "wood", and "worth", are represented in this county by Hertford, Royston, Harpenden, Redbourn, Cuffley, Wheathampstead, Tring, Radlett, Borehamwood and Rickmansworth.
There is evidence of human life in Hertfordshire from the
Mesolithic period
The Mesolithic (Greek: μÎσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously ...
. It was first farmed during the
Neolithic period
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
and permanent habitation appeared at the beginning of the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
. This was followed by tribes settling in the area during the
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
.
Following the
Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, the aboriginal
Catuvellauni
The Catuvellauni (Common Brittonic: *''Catu-wellaunī'', "war-chiefs") were a Celtic tribe or state of southeastern Britain before the Roman conquest, attested by inscriptions into the 4th century.
The fortunes of the Catuvellauni and their ...
quickly submitted and adapted to the Roman life; resulting in the development of several new towns, including
Verulamium
Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon ...
(St Albans) where in c. 293 the first recorded British martyrdom is traditionally believed to have taken place.
Saint Alban
Saint Alban (; la, Albanus) is venerated as the first-recorded British Christian martyr, for which reason he is considered to be the British protomartyr. Along with fellow Saints Julius and Aaron, Alban is one of three named martyrs rec ...
, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill. His martyr's cross of a yellow saltire on a blue field is reflected in the
flag and coat of arms of Hertfordshire as the yellow field to the stag or Hart representing the county. He is the Patron Saint of Hertfordshire.
With the
departure of the Roman Legions in the early 5th century, the now-unprotected territory was invaded and colonised by the
Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
. By the 6th century, the majority of the modern county was part of the
East Saxon
la, Regnum Orientalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the East Saxons
, common_name = Essex
, era = Heptarchy
, status =
, status_text =
, government_type = Monarch ...
kingdom. This relatively short-lived kingdom collapsed in the 9th century, ceding the territory of Hertfordshire to the control of the West Anglians of
Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era= Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ...
. The region finally became an English shire in the 10th century, on the merger of the West Saxon and Mercian kingdoms.
In the midst of the Norse invasions, Hertfordshire was on the front lines of much of the fighting. King
Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder (17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousin ...
, in his reconquest of Norse-held lands in what was to become
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, established a "
burh
A burh () or burg was an Old English fortification or fortified settlement. In the 9th century, raids and invasions by Vikings prompted Alfred the Great to develop a network of burhs and roads to use against such attackers. Some were new constr ...
" or fort in Hertford, which was to curb Norse activities in the area. His father,
King Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who ...
, established the River Lea as a boundary between his kingdom and that of the Norse lord
Guthrum
Guthrum ( ang, Guðrum, c. 835 – c. 890) was King of East Anglia in the late 9th century. Originally a native of what is now Denmark, he was one of the leaders of the "Great Summer Army" that arrived in Reading during April 871 to join forces ...
, with the north and eastern parts of the county being within the
Danelaw
The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ang, Dena lagu; da, Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian ...
. There is little evidence however of
Norse placenames within this region, and many of the
Anglo-Saxon features remained intact to this day. The county however suffered from renewed Norse raids in the late 10th to early 11th centuries, as armies led by
Danish king
This is a list of Monarchy of Denmark, Danish monarchs, that is, the kings and queens regnant of Denmark. This includes:
* The Kingdom of Denmark (up to 1397)
** Personal union of Denmark and Norway (1380–1397)
* The Kalmar Union (1397–1536) ...
s
Swein Forkbeard and
Cnut the Great
Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn rÃki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norwa ...
harried the country as part of their attempts to undermine and overthrow English king
Athelred the Unready.
A century later,
William of Normandy
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 108 ...
received the surrender of the surviving senior English Lords and Clergy at
Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...
, resulting in a new Anglicised title of
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
, before entering London unopposed and being crowned at
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
. Hertfordshire was used for some of the new Norman castles at
Bishop's Stortford, and at
King's Langley
Kings Langley is a village, former manor and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north-west of Westminster in the historic centre of London and to the south of the Chiltern Hills. It now forms part of the London commuter belt. The villa ...
, a staging post between London and the royal residence of
Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...
.
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 manus ...
recorded the county as having nine
hundreds.
Tring
Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...
and
Danais became one
Dacorum
The Borough of Dacorum is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England that includes the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and Kings Langley. The district, which was formed in 1974, had a population of 137,799 in 2001. I ...
from Danis Corum or Danish rule harking back to a
Viking
Vikings ; non, vÃkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
not
Saxon past. The other seven were
Braughing
Braughing is a village and civil parish, between the rivers Quin and Rib, in the non-metropolitan district of East Hertfordshire, part of the English county of Hertfordshire. Braughing gave its name to a county division in Hertfordshire, kn ...
,
Stevenage,
Cashio,
Buntingford,
Hertford,
Hitchin and
Odsey.
In the later Plantagenet period, St. Albans Abbey was an initial drafting place of what was to become the Magna Carta. And in the later Wars of the Roses, St. Albans was the scene of two major battles between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists.
In Tudor times,
Hatfield House
Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Cec ...
was often frequented by Queen Elizabeth I. Stuart King James I used the locale for hunting and facilitated the construction of a waterway, the
New River, supplying
drinking water
Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, a ...
to London.
As London grew, Hertfordshire became conveniently close to the English capital; much of the area was owned by the
nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The character ...
and
aristocracy, this
patronage helped to boost the local economy. However, the greatest boost to Hertfordshire came during the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, after which the population rose dramatically. In 1903,
Letchworth
Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 33,249.
Letchworth ...
became the world's first
garden city and
Stevenage became the first town to redevelop under the
New Towns Act 1946
The New Towns Acts were a series of Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to found new settlements or to expand substantially existing ones, to establish Development Corporations to deliver them, and to create a Commission to wind up the ...
.
The first shooting-down of a
zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...
over Great Britain during WW1 happened in Cuffley.
From the
1920s
File:1920s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Seán Hogan during the Irish War of Independence; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which ...
until the late
1980s
File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...
, the town of
Borehamwood
Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...
was home to one of the major British
film studio complexes, including the
MGM-British Studios
MGM-British was a subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer initially established (as MGM London Films Denham) at Denham Film Studios in 1936. It was in limbo during the Second World War; however, following the end of hostilities, a facility was acquire ...
. 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
Elstree is a large village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire, England. It is about northwest of central London on the former A5 road, that follows the course of Watling Street. In 2011, its population was 5,110. It forms part of t ...
. American director
Stanley Kubrick not only used to shoot in those studios but also lived in the area until his death. ''
Big Brother UK
''Big Brother'' is the British version of the international reality television franchise '' Big Brother'' created by producer John de Mol in 1997. Broadcast yearly from 2000 to 2018, and due to return in 2023, the show follows the format of ot ...
'' and ''
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and l ...
'' have been filmed there. ''
EastEnders'' is filmed at Elstree. Hertfordshire has seen development at
Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden
Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden is an studio complex in Leavesden in Watford, Hertfordshire, in South East England. Formerly known as Leavesden Film Studios and still colloquially known as Leavesden Studios or simply Leavesden, it is a film ...
; the
''Harry Potter'' series was filmed here and the 1995 James Bond film ''
GoldenEye
''GoldenEye'' is a 1995 spy film, the seventeenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Martin Campbell, it was the first in the se ...
''.
On 17 October 2000, the
Hatfield rail crash
The Hatfield rail crash was a railway accident on 17 October 2000, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. It was caused by a metal fatigue-induced derailment, killing four people and injuring more than 70.
The accident exposed major stewardship shortco ...
killed four people with over 70 injured. The crash exposed the shortcomings of
Railtrack
Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...
, which consequently saw speed restrictions and major track replacement. On 10 May 2002, the fourth of the
Potters Bar rail accidents occurred killing seven people; the train was at high speed when it derailed and flipped into the air when one of the carriages slid along the platform where it came to rest.
In early December 2005, the
2005 Hemel Hempstead fuel depot explosions occurred at the
Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal.
Geography
Hertfordshire is the county immediately north of London and is part of the
East of England region, a mainly statistical unit.
To the east is
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
, to the west is
Buckinghamshire and to the north are
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...
and
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...
. A significant minority of the population across all districts
commute
Commute, commutation or commutative may refer to:
* Commuting, the process of travelling between a place of residence and a place of work
Mathematics
* Commutative property, a property of a mathematical operation whose result is insensitive to th ...
to
Central London.
The county's boundaries were roughly fixed by the
Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844
The Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 61), which came into effect on 20 October 1844, was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which eliminated many outliers or exclaves of counties in England and Wales for civil purposes. ...
which eliminated
exclaves; amended when, in 1965 under the
London Government Act 1963
The London Government Act 1963 (c. 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created Greater London and a new local government structure within it. The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the ...
,
East Barnet Urban District
East Barnet Valley was a local government district from 1863 to 1965 around the town of East Barnet. It was partly in the counties of Hertfordshire and Middlesex until 1889, when the Middlesex part was transferred to Hertfordshire. It was renamed ...
and
Barnet Urban District
Barnet was a local government district in south Hertfordshire from 1863 to 1965 around the town of Barnet.
Creation
Barnet Local Government District was created on 25 September 1863, after the town's ratepayers decided to adopt the Local Govern ...
were abolished, their area was transferred to form part of the present-day
London Borough of Barnet
The London Borough of Barnet () is a suburban London borough in North London. The borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. It forms part of Outer London and is the largest London borough ...
and the
Potters Bar Urban District
Potters Bar Urban District was a local government district in England from 1894 to 1974, covering the town of Potters Bar and the village of South Mimms. The district was initially called the South Mimms Rural District, being renamed in 1934.
...
of
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...
was transferred to Hertfordshire.
The highest point in the county is at (
AOD) on
the Ridgeway
The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countryside
The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ...
long distance national path, on the border of
Hastoe
Hastoe (Halstowe or Halstoe in the 13th century) is a hamlet in the civil parish of Tring. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, 1.7m south of the town of Tring in the county of Hertfordshire and on the county boundary with Buckinghamshire.
The hi ...
near
Tring
Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...
with
Drayton Beauchamp
Drayton Beauchamp (pronounced 'Beecham') is a village and civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the east of the county bordering Hertfordshire, about six miles from Aylesbury and two miles from Tring ...
, Buckinghamshire.
At the 2011 census, among the county's ten districts,
East Hertfordshire
East Hertfordshire is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire. The largest town in the district is Bishop's Stortford, and the other main towns are Ware, Bunti ...
had the lowest population density (290 people per km
2) and
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, and ...
the highest (4210 per km
2). Compared with neighbouring Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire lacks large towns or cities on the scale of
Luton
Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable a ...
or
Milton Keynes, whose populations exceed 200,000, but its overall population (approximately 1 million) is greater than those of the two aforementioned counties.
The
River Lea near
Harpenden runs through
Wheathampstead
Wheathampstead is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north of St Albans. The population of the ward at the 2001 census was 6,058. Included within the parish is the small hamlet of Amwell.
History
Settlements in this area were ...
, Welwyn Garden City, Hertford, Ware, and Broxbourne before reaching
Cheshunt
Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, ...
and ultimately the River Thames. The far west of the county is the most hilly, with the
Chiltern Hills surrounding
Tring
Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...
,
Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...
and the Ashridge estate. This
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of ...
runs from near Hitchin in the north to Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
Many of the county's major settlements are in the central, northern and southern areas, such as Watford, Hemel Hempstead,
Kings Langley,
Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and ...
,
St. Albans
St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman r ...
, Harpenden,
Radlett,
Borehamwood
Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...
,
Potters Bar
Potters Bar is a town in Hertfordshire, England,in the historic County of Middlesex Hertsmere Borough Council – Community Strategy First Review (PDF) north of central London. In 2011, it had a population of 21,882. In 2022 the population was ...
, Stevenage,
Hatfield,
Welwyn
Welwyn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish also includes the villages of Digswell and Oaklands. It is sometimes referred to as Old Welwyn or Welwyn Village, to distinguish it from the much newer and larger ...
and Welwyn Garden City, Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock. These are all small to medium-sized locations, featuring a mix of post-WWII new towns and older/more historical locales. The
City of St. Albans is an example of a historical settlement, as its cathedral and abbey date to the
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
period, and there are ruins from the Roman settlement of
Verulamium
Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon ...
nearby the current city centre. Stevenage is a mix of post-WWII
new town planning amidst its prior incarnation as a smaller town. The Old Town in Stevenage represents this historic core and has many shops and buildings reflecting its pre-WWII heritage. Hitchin also has a historic centre, with many
Tudor and
Stuart era buildings interspersed amongst more contemporary structures.
Hertfordshire's eastern regions are predominantly rural and arable, intermixed with villages and small to medium-sized towns. Royston, Buntingford and
Bishops Stortford, along with
Ware
Ware may refer to:
People
* Ware (surname)
* William of Ware (), English Franciscan theologian
Places Canada
* Fort Ware, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* Ware, Devon
*Ware, Hertfordshire
* Ware, Kent
United States
* Ware, Elmore County ...
and the county town of Hertford are major settlements in this regard. The physical geography of eastern Hertfordshire is less elevated than the far west, but with lower rising hills and prominent rivers such as the
Stort
The River Stort is a river in Essex and Hertfordshire, England. It is 24 miles (38 km) long and flows from just south of the village of Langley to the River Lea at Hoddesdon.
The river's name is a back-formation; the town of Bishop's Stor ...
. This river rises in
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
and terminates via a confluence with the Lea near to Ware.
Apart from the Lea and Stort, the River Colne is the major watercourse in the county's west. This runs near Watford and Radlett, and has a complex system/drainage area running south into both Greater London and Buckinghamshire.
An unofficial status, the purple star-shaped flower with yellow stamens, the
Pasqueflower
The genus ''Pulsatilla'' contains about 40 species of herbaceous perennial plants native to meadows and prairies of North America, Europe, and Asia. Derived from the Hebrew word for Passover, "pasakh", the common name pasque flower refers to the ...
is among endemic
county flower
In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used to ...
s.
Geology
The rocks of Hertfordshire belong to the great shallow
syncline known as the
London Basin
The London Basin is an elongated, roughly triangular sedimentary basin approximately long which underlies London and a large area of south east England, south eastern East Anglia and the adjacent North Sea. The basin formed as a result of compre ...
. The beds dip in a south-easterly direction towards the syncline's lowest point roughly under the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
. The most important formations are the
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...
, exposed as the high ground in the north and west of the county, forming the
Chiltern Hills and the younger
Palaeocene,
Reading Beds
The Reading Formation is a geologic formation in southern England. It dates to the Paleocene period, and is part of the Lambeth Group. It overlies the London Basin and is below the Harwich Formation. The formation is composed of "a series of len ...
and
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...
,
London Clay
The London Clay Formation is a marine geological formation of Ypresian (early Eocene Epoch, c. 56–49 million years ago) age which crops out in the southeast of England. The London Clay is well known for its fossil content. The fossils from t ...
which occupy the remaining southern part. The eastern half of the county was covered by glaciers during the
Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
and has a superficial layer of glacial
boulder clay
Boulder clay is an unsorted agglomeration of clastic sediment that is unstratified and structureless and contains gravel of various sizes, shapes, and compositions distributed at random in a fine-grained matrix. The fine-grained matrix consists o ...
s.
Natural resources and environment
Much of the west – and much more in the east – have richly diverse countryside.
[''Hertfordshire A Landscape History'' Anne Rowe, Tom Williamson (2013), University of Hertfordshire Press at Introduction, e-page 18 https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Hertfordshire/rBleCUlsT_oC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PT18] These range from beech woods of the
Chilterns, clayland
buffer zone countryside of Braughing and the Hadhams across to
ancient
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...
hornbeam
Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the flowering plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The 30–40 species occur across much of the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
Origin of names
The common English name ''hornbeam ...
coppices west of the upper Lea valley.
[ The county has sweeping panoramas of chalklands near Royston, ]Baldock
Baldock ( ) is a historic market town and unparished area in the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire, England, where the River Ivel rises. It lies north of London, southeast of Bedford, and north n ...
, Hexton
Hexton is a small village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, about west of Hitchin.
This parish is a salient of Hertfordshire jutting northwards into Bedfordshire. The southern half of the parish is part of the chalky downs of the Ch ...
and Tring
Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...
.[
Large parts of the county are used for agriculture.
Some ]quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...
ing of sand and gravel occurs around St Albans. In the past, clay has supplied local brick-making and still does in Bovingdon
Bovingdon is a village in Hertfordshire, England, southwest of Hemel Hempstead, and it is a civil parish within the local authority area of Dacorum. It forms the largest part of the ward of Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield, which had a ...
, just south-west of Hemel Hempstead. The chalk that is the bedrock of much of the county provides an aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characteris ...
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
Ware may refer to:
People
* Ware (surname)
* William of Ware (), English Franciscan theologian
Places Canada
* Fort Ware, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* Ware, Devon
*Ware, Hertfordshire
* Ware, Kent
United States
* Ware, Elmore County ...
, using the New River built by Hugh Myddleton
Sir Hugh Myddelton (or Middleton), 1st Baronet (1560 – 10 December 1631) was a Welsh clothmaker, entrepreneur, mine-owner, goldsmith, banker and self-taught engineer. The spelling of his name is inconsistently reproduced, but Myddelton appea ...
and opened in 1613. Local rivers, although small, supported developing industries such as paper production at Nash Mills
Nash Mills is a civil parish within Hemel Hempstead and Dacorum Borough Council on the northern side of the Grand Union Canal, formerly the River Gade, and in the southernmost corner of Hemel Hempstead. There is evidence of a mill in this locati ...
.
Hertfordshire affords habitat for a variety of flora and fauna. A bird once common in the shire is the Hooded Crow
The hooded crow (''Corvus cornix''), also called the scald-crow or hoodie, is a Eurasian bird species in the genus ''Corvus''. Widely distributed, it is found across Northern, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle Eas ...
, the old name of which is the eponymous name of the regional newspaper, the ''Royston Crow'' published in Royston. A product, now largely defunct, was watercress
Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae.
Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest known leaf v ...
, based in Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Developed after the Second World War as a new ...
and Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...
supported by reliable, clean chalk rivers.
Urban areas
Economy
This is a table of trends of regional gross value added of Hertfordshire at current basic prices with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
Hertfordshire has the main operational and/or headquarters UK site of some very large employers. Clockwise from north:
In Stevenage (a subsidiary of: BAE Systems, Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: ' ...
and Finmeccanica
Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the eighth ...
) MBDA
MBDA is a European multinational developer and manufacturer of missiles.[MBDA Inc. US Division Co ...](_blank)
, develops missile
In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocke ...
s. In the same town, Airbus (Defence & Space Division) produces satellites.
Hatfield was where de Havilland developed the first commercial jet liner, the Comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
. Now the site is a business park and new campus for the University of Hertfordshire
The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...
. This major employment site notably hosts EE, Computacenter
Computacenter plc is a British multinational that provides computer services to public- and private-sector customers. It is a UK company based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituen ...
and Ocado
Ocado Group is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It owns a 50% share of Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer Marks & Spencer) and licenses its grocery fulfilment technology to global ...
groceries and other goods e-commerce.
Welwyn Garden City
Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...
hosts Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
's UK base, hosts the UK Cereal Partners factory and in pharmaceuticals it hosts Roche UK's headquarters (subsidiary of the Swiss Hoffman-La Roche). GlaxoSmithKline has plants in Ware
Ware may refer to:
People
* Ware (surname)
* William of Ware (), English Franciscan theologian
Places Canada
* Fort Ware, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* Ware, Devon
*Ware, Hertfordshire
* Ware, Kent
United States
* Ware, Elmore County ...
and Stevenage.
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Developed after the Second World War as a new ...
has large premises of Dixons Carphone
Currys plc, formerly Dixons Carphone plc, is a British multinational electrical and telecommunications retailer and services company headquartered in London, England. It was formed on 7 August 2014 by the merger of Dixons Retail and Carphon ...
.
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA), the trade association for UK pharmacies, is based in St Albans.
Kings Langley has the plant-office of Pure
Pure may refer to:
Computing
* A pure function
* A pure virtual function
* PureSystems, a family of computer systems introduced by IBM in 2012
* Pure Software, a company founded in 1991 by Reed Hastings to support the Purify tool
* Pure-FTPd, F ...
, making DAB digital radios.
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, and ...
hosts national companies such as J D Wetherspoon
J D Wetherspoon plc (branded variously as Wetherspoon or Wetherspoons, and colloquially known as Spoons) is a pub company operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company was founded in 1979 by Tim Martin and is based in Watford. It o ...
, Camelot Group
The Camelot Group is the operator of the UK National Lottery whose current franchise period started in 2009 and runs until February 2024. It has also operated the Illinois State Lottery in the state of Illinois in the United States since 20 ...
, Bathstore
Bathstore.com Ltd., (also known as bathstore) is the largest specialist bathroom retailer in the United Kingdom.
History
Bathstore was originally started in the beginning of the 1990s by Patrick Riley and Nico de Beer, with the idea to bring q ...
, and Caversham Finance (BrightHouse). It is also the UK base of multi-nationals Hilton Worldwide, TotalEnergies
TotalEnergies SE is a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven supermajor oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and ...
, TK Maxx
TK Maxx is a subsidiary of the American apparel and home goods company TJX Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts. The stores operate throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands, totall ...
, Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation (Trade name, doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only Big-box store, big-box retail stores (warehouse c ...
, JJ Kavanagh and Sons
JJ Kavanagh and Sons is Ireland's largest private coach operator. It was founded in 1919 by J.J. Kavanagh with the operation of a service connecting Urlingford with Kilkenny City.
The company has expanded greatly since the 1990s with the tak ...
, Vinci and Beko
Beko ( ; stylized as beko) is a Turkish major appliance and consumer electronics brand of Arçelik A.Ş. controlled by Koç Holding.
History
Beko Elektronik A.Ş. was founded by Vehbi Koç, the founder of Koç Holding (who also founded Arà ...
. The 2006 World Golf Championship and the 2013 Bilderberg Conference The 2013 Bilderberg Group, Bilderberg Conference took place June 6–9, 2013, at The Grove, Watford, The Grove hotel in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. It was the first Bilderberg Group conference to be held in the United Kingdom since the 1998 mee ...
, took place at The Grove hotel. Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
owns and runs its main UK base since the 2000s, Warner Studios, in Leavesden, Watford.
Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and ...
hosts Skanska
Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world according to ''Construction Global'' magazine. Notable Skanska projects include renovation of t ...
.
Television
Local news is provided by BBC London
BBC London is the BBC English Region producing local radio, television, teletext and online services in London and parts of the surrounding area. Its output includes the daily ''BBC London News'' and weekly '' Sunday Politics'' on television, ...
& ITV London
ITV London is the on-air brand name used by ''ITV Broadcasting Limited'' for two broadcast franchises of ITV, Carlton Television (weekdays) and London Weekend Television (weekends) in the London ITV region. Its terrestrial digital signal is ...
, however northern parts of the county receive BBC East
BBC East is one of BBC's English Regions covering Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, northern Buckinghamshire, and the majority of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. It is headquartered in The Forum, Norwich since 2003. It wa ...
& ITV Anglia
ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated ...
from Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
.
Sport
In 2012, the canoe and kayak slalom events of the 2012 Summer Olympics took place in Waltham Cross, Broxbourne
Broxbourne is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Hoddesdon, in the Broxbourne district, in Hertfordshire, England, north of London, with a population of 15,303 at the 2011 Census.Broxbourne Town population 2011 I ...
.
Football
As of the 2021–22 season, there are four professional football teams in Hertfordshire: Watford F.C.
Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. They play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football.
The club’s original foundation is 1881, aligned with that of its antecede ...
, Stevenage F.C.
Stevenage Football Club (known as Stevenage Borough Football Club until 2010) is a professional association football club based in the town of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the Engli ...
, Arsenal W.F.C. and Boreham Wood F.C.
Boreham Wood Football Club is a professional football club based in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. They are currently members of the National League, the fifth tier of English football, and play at Meadow Park. Established in 1948, they ...
Since 1922, Watford play their home games at Vicarage Road
Vicarage Road is a stadium in Watford, England, and is the home stadium of championship club Watford. An all-seater stadium, its current capacity is 22,200.
History
It has been the home of Watford since 1922, when the club moved from Cas ...
. The club joined the Football League in 1920 as a founding member of the Third Division and first played in the First Division of English football in 1982, finishing as runners-up to champions Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
. Watford was promoted to the Premier League at the end of the 2020–2021 season. After spending one season in the Premier League, they were relegated to the Championship again for the 2022-2023 season.
Stevenage F.C. was formed in 1976 as Stevenage Borough and have played at Broadhall Way
Broadhall Way, known as the Lamex Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is an association football stadium in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. It has been the home ground of Stevenage (formerly Stevenage Borough and Stevenage Town) since the early 1960s, an ...
since 1980. Stevenage was the first club to win a competitive match at the new Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...
, beating Kidderminster Harriers 3–2 in the 2007 FA Trophy Final. The club currently play in the EFL League Two and have been managed by former player Alex Revell
Alexander David Revell (born 7 July 1983) is an English manager and former footballer. He is currently serving as a first team coach for Stevenage in League Two. He was the manager at Stevenage from February 16, 2020 till November 14, 2021. Dur ...
since February 2020.
Arsenal F.C., whilst based at the Emirates Stadium in the London Borough of Islington
The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough in Inner London. Whilst the majority of the district is located in north London, the borough also includes a significant area to the south which forms part of central London. Islington has ...
, has long held a training ground in the county. Until 1999, it held the London Colney University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
facility, until it built a new purpose-built compound adjacent to it. Watford FC currently utilises the old Arsenal training area as its training facility.
Arsenal W.F.C. play at Meadow Park in Borehamwood
Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...
. The club was formed in 1987 and have played in the FA Women's Super League
The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features ...
since its inaugural season in 2011.
Hertfordshire has many semi-professional and amateur clubs. The highest placed are Hemel Hempstead Town
Hemel Hempstead Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. Affiliated to the Hertfordshire County Football Association, they are currently members of the National League South and pl ...
and St Albans City, who play one division lower in the National League South.
Rugby
Rugby league
Hemel Stags
Hemel Stags are an amateur rugby league club based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. They were semi-professional and played in Betfred League 1 from 2013 until 2018. They withdrew from the professional system when their licence was purchased ...
are a rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
team based in Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Developed after the Second World War as a new ...
. Hemel Stags have played at Pennine Way Stadium since the club's founding in 1981. Until 2018, the club played in league 1, the third tier of the British rugby league system, and now compete in the Conference League South.
Rugby union
The Hertfordshire Rugby Football Union
The Hertfordshire Rugby Football Union is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in the county of Hertfordshire in England. The union is the constituent body of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) for Hertfordshire, and administers and orga ...
is the governing body for rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
in Hertfordshire and is responsible for any interested parties involved in rugby.
Tring Rugby
Tring Rugby Club is an English rugby union team based in Tring, Hertfordshire. The club runs four senior teams, two academy teams and a full range of junior teams. The first XV currently plays in London & South East Premier.
History
Tring Rugby ...
play matches at Cow Lane, Tring. The first XV currently play in the Regional 1 South East
Regional 1 South East (up until 2022-23 known as London & South East Premier and up until 2016-17 known as National League 3 London & South East) is a level five league in the English rugby union system. It is one of six leagues at this level. ...
, League. A level 5 league.
Landmarks
Below is a list of notable visitor attractions in Hertfordshire:
* Aldenham
Aldenham is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, north-east of Watford and southwest of Radlett. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book and is one of Hertsmere's 14 conservation areas. The village has eight pre-19th-century listed buil ...
Country Park
* Ashridge – the estate surrounding the neo-Gothic house by James Wyatt
James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806.
Early life
W ...
(not open to the public) is National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
land.
** Bridgewater Monument
Ashridge is a country estate and stately home in Hertfordshire, England in the United Kingdom. It is situated in the Chiltern Hills, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, about north of Berkhamsted and north west of London. The estate com ...
, 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
Berkhamsted Castle is a Norman motte-and-bailey castle in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. The castle was built to obtain control of a key route between London and the Midlands during the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century. Robert of ...
* Cedars Park, Broxbourne – historic park once the site of James I's favourite residence, Theobalds Palace. Maintained by Broxbourne Services and the Friends of Cedars Park.
* de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre
The de Havilland Aircraft Museum, formerly the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre, is a volunteer-run aviation museum in London Colney, Hertfordshire, England. The collection is built around the definitive prototype and restoration shops fo ...
, between London Colney
London Colney () is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. It is located to the north of London, close to Junction 22 of the M25 motorway.
It is near St Albans and part of the St Albans District. At the time of the 2001 census ...
and South Mimms
South Mimms is a village and civil parish in the Hertsmere district of Hertfordshire in the East of England. It is a small settlement located near to the junction of the M25 motorway with the A1(M) motorway and is perhaps more widely known because ...
* Frogmore Paper Mill
Frogmore Paper Mill is a working paper mill situated in Apsley, Hertfordshire, near Hemel Hempstead. The mill is on an island in the River Gade, which forms part of the Grand Union Canal. It is the oldest mechanical paper mill in the world.
Hist ...
, Apsley
* Hatfield
** Hatfield House
Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Cec ...
– Jacobean house, gardens and park
** Mill Green Watermill
Mill Green Museum is a working watermill in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England.
The building is listed grade II* ("The Old Mill House Museum and Mill Green Mill") and dates from the 17th century.
The local museum is in the old miller's house. ...
in Hatfield
* Henry Moore Foundation
The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore. The charity was set up with a gift from the arti ...
, Much Hadham
Much Hadham, formerly known as Great Hadham, is a village and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire, England. The parish of Much Hadham contains the hamlets of Perry Green and Green Tye, as well as the village of Muc ...
– sculpture park on the work of Henry Moore
* Knebworth House
Knebworth House is an English country house in the parish of Knebworth in Hertfordshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. Its gardens are also listed Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. In its surrounding park is t ...
, of country park, venue of many rock and pop festivals
* Leavesden Film Studios
Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden is an studio complex in Leavesden in Watford, Hertfordshire, in South East England. Formerly known as Leavesden Film Studios and still colloquially known as Leavesden Studios or simply Leavesden, it is a film an ...
, home of the Warner Bros. '' Making of Harry Potter'' studio tour
* Letchworth Garden City
Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 33,249.
Letchworth ...
– the world's first Garden City. Site of the first planned Green Belt
A green belt is a policy and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or green wedges, which ...
, the UK's first roundabout, and a number of experiments in early town planning and house and factory design
** Spirella Building
* Magic Roundabout (Hemel Hempstead)
"The Magic Roundabout" in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, is the familiar name given to the Plough Roundabout. The familiar name comes from the children's television programme, and is also used for a similar junction in Swindon and ...
– a complex road junction
* Royston Cave – in Royston town centre
* Rye House Gatehouse in Hoddesdon
Hoddesdon () is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, lying entirely within the London Metropolitan Area and Greater London Urban Area. The area is on the River Lea and the Lee Navigation along with the New River.
Hoddesdon ...
(part of the Rye House Plot
The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother (and heir to the throne) James, Duke of York. The royal party went from Westminster to Newmarket to see horse races and were expected to make the ...
to assassinate King Charles II)
* St Albans
** Beech Bottom Dyke
Beech Bottom Dyke, is a large ditch running for almost a mile at the northern edge of St Albans, Hertfordshire flanked by banks on both sides. It is up to wide, and deep, and it can be followed for three quarters of a mile between the "Ancien ...
– large-scale Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
defensive or boundary ditch
** Sopwell Nunnery
Sopwell Priory (also known as Sopwell Nunnery) was a Benedictine nunnery founded around 1140 on the site of an ancient hermitage in Sopwell, Hertfordshire, England. After the Dissolution, the priory was torn down and a Tudor manor house constructe ...
** St Albans Cathedral
St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban but often referred to locally as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England. Much of its architecture dates from Norman times. It ceased to be ...
** Verulamium
Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon ...
– Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
town remains, including museum of Roman life and the remains of a Roman amphitheatre
* Scott's Grotto, Ware
Ware may refer to:
People
* Ware (surname)
* William of Ware (), English Franciscan theologian
Places Canada
* Fort Ware, British Columbia
United Kingdom
* Ware, Devon
*Ware, Hertfordshire
* Ware, Kent
United States
* Ware, Elmore County ...
* Shaw's Corner, Ayot St Lawrence
Ayot St Lawrence is a small English village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, west of Welwyn. There are several other ''Ayots'' in the area, including Ayot Green and Ayot St Peter, where the census population of Ayot St Lawrence was included ...
– home of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...
* Stevenage – the first UK New Town
** Six Hills
The Six Hills are a collection of Roman barrows situated alongside the old Great North Road on Six Hills Common in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. They are classed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and are protected by law. They form the lar ...
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
barrows site
* Therfield Heath
Therfield Heath is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and Local Nature Reserve on the chalk escarpment just north of Therfield, Hertfordshire; since it lies south-west of the town of Royston, Hertfordshire, Royston it is also known l ...
– a local nature reserve in the north of the county
* University of Hertfordshire
The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...
– a public research university based in Hatfield
* Welwyn Roman Baths
* Welwyn Viaduct
The Digswell Viaduct, also called Welwyn Viaduct, is a railway viaduct that carries the East Coast Main Line over the River Mimram in the county of Hertfordshire in England. A prominent local landmark, it is located between Welwyn Garden City ...
to the north of Welwyn Garden City
* Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
, Tring
Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...
– a museum-annotated collection of dead mammals, birds, reptiles and insects
* Watford Museum
Watford Museum is a local museum in Watford, Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom. It is owned by Watford Borough Council and is located on the Lower High Street in Watford.
The museum opened in 1982 and is housed in a Grade II-listed Georgian ...
, fine art and local artefacts
Main footpaths
*The Ridgeway
The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countryside
The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk ...
*Icknield Way
The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern and eastern England that runs from Norfolk to Wiltshire. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills.
Background
It is generally said to be, wi ...
* Grand Union Canal Walk
* Harcamlow Way
*Hertfordshire Way
The Hertfordshire Way is a circular walk around the county of Hertfordshire, England. The total length is which was originally fully waymarked in the anticlockwise direction but is now waymarked in both directions. One section has two optiona ...
* Hertfordshire Chain Walk
Transport
Hertfordshire is a home county with many towns forming part of the London commuter belt
The London metropolitan area is the metropolitan area of London, England. It has several definitions, including the London Travel to Work Area, and usually consists of the London urban area, settlements that share London's infrastructure, and ...
and has some of the principal roads in England including the A1, A1(M)
A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in England. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capit ...
, A41, A414, M1, M11, and the M25.
Four principal national railway lines pass through the county:
* the West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...
from . Avanti West Coast
Avanti West Coast is a train operating company in the United Kingdom owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership franchise.
During November 2016, the Department for Transport (DfT) announced the Inter ...
operates high speed intercity
InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
services via to the Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...
, North Wales
North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...
, the North West England and Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. West Midlands Trains
West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trade names: West Midlands Railway (WMR) (within the ...
provides local commuter and regional services.
* the East Coast Main Line from . Local commuter and regional services are provided by Govia Thameslink Railway
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) is a train operating company that operates the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) rail franchise in England. Within the franchise, GTR runs the Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern and Gatwick Expr ...
. London North Eastern Railway runs high speed intercity services via to the east coast of Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...
and Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
* the Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield in the East Midlands ...
which forms part of the Thameslink route between Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
and Brighton via Central London with services are provided by Govia Thameslink Railway
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) is a train operating company that operates the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (TSGN) rail franchise in England. Within the franchise, GTR runs the Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern and Gatwick Expr ...
. East Midlands Railway provide intercity services along the line from London St Pancras
St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a London station group, central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Bor ...
to the East Midlands and Yorkshire
* the West Anglia Main Line
The West Anglia Main Line is one of the two main lines that operate out of , the other being the Great Eastern Main Line, which operates services to Ipswich and Norwich via Colchester. It runs generally north through Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Har ...
from London Liverpool Street
Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...
. Local commuter and regional services are provided by Greater Anglia mainly in the east of the county
A number of other local rail routes also cross Hertfordshire:
* the London to Aylesbury Line
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...
from London Marylebone
Marylebone station ( ) is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern te ...
runs via Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and ...
and Chorleywood
* the Abbey Line
The Abbey Line, also called the St Albans Abbey branch line, is a railway line from Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey. The route passes through town and countryside in the county of Hertfordshire, just outside the boundaries of the Oyster C ...
, a local line from Watford to
* the Cambridge Line, a branch of the East Coast line which runs via Royston and Letchworth
Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 33,249.
Letchworth ...
to
Three commuter lines operated by Transport for London enter the county:
* the Lea Valley Lines
The Lea Valley lines are two commuter lines and two branches in north-east London, so named because they run along the Lower Lea Valley of the River Lea. They were part of the Great Eastern Railway, now part of the ''Anglia Route'' of Network ...
, a suburban metro line from Liverpool Street to Cheshunt
Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, ...
via Seven Sisters
* the Watford DC Line
The Watford DC line is a suburban line from London Euston to Watford Junction in Watford, Hertfordshire. Its services are operated by London Overground.
The line runs beside the West Coast Main Line (WCML) for most of its length. The London ...
, a suburban metro line from Euston to Watford Junction
* five stations on the London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The ...
Metropolitan line
Stansted Airport
London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London.
London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...
and Luton Airport are both within of the county's borders. The commercial airfield at Elstree
Elstree is a large village in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire, England. It is about northwest of central London on the former A5 road, that follows the course of Watling Street. In 2011, its population was 5,110. It forms part of t ...
is for light aircraft.
The Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter ...
passes through Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and ...
, 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, and ...
, Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
Developed after the Second World War as a new ...
, Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...
and Tring
Tring is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Dacorum, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in a gap passing through the Chiltern Hills, classed as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, from Central London. Tring is linked to ...
.
Education
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 form
In the education systems of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepare for A-l ...
s, and there are no sixth form college
A sixth form college is an educational institution, where students aged 16 to 19 typically study for advanced school-level qualifications, such as A Levels, Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) and the International Baccalaureate Di ...
s.
The tertiary colleges, each with multiple campuses, are Hertford Regional College, North Hertfordshire College
North Hertfordshire College ("NHC") is a further education and higher education college operating in Stevenage, Hitchin, and Letchworth Garden City. NHC was established on 1st April 1991, through the amalgamation of Stevenage College, Hitchin ...
, Oaklands College
Oaklands College is a further education college in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. It was established in 1991 when further education was reorganised. The college has campuses in St Albans and Welwyn Garden City, with a further provision in Boreh ...
and West Herts College
West Herts College is a college for further education in Watford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The college has campuses in Watford, Hemel Hempstead and Kings Langley. As of 2017 the college has 5,900 students on study programmes or apprentic ...
.
The University of Hertfordshire
The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...
is a modern university based largely in Hatfield. It has more than 23,000 students.
Literature
Hertfordshire is the location of Jack Worthing
''The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious ...
's country house in Oscar Wilde's play ''The Importance of Being Earnest
''The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious ...
''.
Jane Austen's novel '' Pride and Prejudice'' is primarily set in Hertfordshire.
The location of Mr Jarndyce's Bleak House in Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
's ''Bleak House
''Bleak House'' is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The novel has many characters and several sub-plots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and ...
'' is near St Albans.
The eponymous residence in E. M. Forster
Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...
's novel ''Howards End
''Howards End'' is a novel by E. M. Forster, first published in 1910, about social conventions, codes of conduct and relationships in turn-of-the-century England. ''Howards End'' is considered by many to be Forster's masterpiece. The book was ...
'' was based on Rooks Nest House
Rooks Nest House is a house on Weston Road, Stevenage, Hertfordshire. It was the childhood home of the author E. M. Forster (1879–1970) who described it in the novel ''Howards End''. It is Grade I listed for its historical interest and literary a ...
just outside Stevenage.
George Orwell based ''Animal Farm
''Animal Farm'' is a beast fable, in the form of satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to c ...
'' on Wallington, Hertfordshire
Wallington is a small village and civil parish in the North Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England, near the town of Baldock. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 150. Nearby villages include Rushden ...
, where he lived between 1936 and 1940. Manor Farm and The Great Barn both feature in the novel.
See also
* Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire
This is an incomplete list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire. From 1660 the office holder was also Custos Rotulorum of Hertfordshire.
* William Parr, 1st Marquess of Northampton 1553 –
* Sir Ralph Sadleir 1570–?
*He ...
* High Sheriff of Hertfordshire
The High Sheriff of Hertfordshire was an ancient Sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the foundation of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provisio ...
* Custos Rotulorum of Hertfordshire
This is a list of people who have served as Custos Rotulorum of Hertfordshire.
* Sir Henry Parker bef. 1544–1552
* Sir Thomas Parry bef. 1558–1560
* Sir Ralph Sadler bef. 1562 – aft. 1579
* Sir John Brograve c. 1583–161 ...
– Keeper of the Rolls
* Hertfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Hertfordshire was a county constituency covering the county of Hertfordshire in England. It returned two Knights of the Shire to the House of Commons of England until 1707, then to the House of Commons of Great Britain until 1800, and to the ...
– Historical list of MPs for Hertfordshire constituency
* List of Jewish communities in Hertfordshire
* Hertfordshire GAA
The Hertfordshire County Board or Hertfordshire GAA is one of the seven county boards of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in Great Britain, and is responsible for the administration of Gaelic games in Hertfordshire, England.
Clubs
Foot ...
* The Hundred Parishes
Notes
References
External links
*
Hertfordshire County Council website
{{authority control
Non-metropolitan counties
Home counties
Counties of England established in antiquity