Sandridge is a village and

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

between

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

and

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 ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England.

History

The original name was "Saundruage" meaning a place of sandy soil serviced by bond tenants. The earliest recorded mention of Sandridge is in the year 796 the parish being part of the revenue of the

Mercian Kings The Kingdom of Mercia was a state in the English Midlands from the 6th century to the 10th century. For some two hundred years from the mid-7th century onwards it was the dominant member of the Heptarchy and consequently the most powerful of the ...

. It was given by Egfrith son of

Offa Offa (died 29 July 796 AD) was King of Mercia, a kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England, from 757 until his death. The son of Thingfrith and a descendant of Eowa, Offa came to the throne after a period of civil war following the assassination of Æt ...

in the first year of his reign to abbot Eadric second abbot of St Alban's Monastery and to the monks of

. Part of the parish of Sandridge was added to the

Municipal Borough of 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 ro ...

in 1887. The remainder of the parish was renamed Sandridge Rural in 1894 when Sandridge Rural Parish Council was formed. In 1913 a further 241 acres were transferred to St Albans. The parish name reverted to Sandridge in 1957.

Second Battle of St Albans

In February 1461 the final skirmishes of the

Second Battle of St Albans The Second Battle of St Albans was fought on 17 February 1461 during the Wars of the Roses in England. It took place at St Albans in Hertfordshire, the first battle having been fought in 1455. The army of the Yorkist faction under the Earl of W ...

took place in and around Sandridge as the

Earl of Warwick Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick. Overview The first creation c ...

, for the Yorkists, retreated towards

Nomansland No man's land is an unoccupied area between two opposing positions. No man's land (Latrun) is an example. No Man's Land, No-man's land or Nomansland may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * No Man's Land, Cornwall, England * No Man's Land F ...

Information

The population of Sandridge

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

at the time of the 2001

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

was 4,808. This includes some people living in the

Jersey Farm Jersey Farm is a residential neighbourhood in the civil parish of Sandridge centred north-east of the city centre of St Albans. It is contiguous with one other settlement, which is larger and has two schools, Marshalswick to the west and south-w ...

area of St Albans. The village has three pubs: the ''Green Man'', the ''Rose and Crown'' and the ''Queen's Head''. The village church, St Leonard's, is medieval. Its

lychgate A lychgate, also spelled lichgate, lycugate, lyke-gate or as two separate words lych gate, (from Old English ''lic'', corpse), also ''wych gate'', is a gateway covered with a roof found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style ch ...

was built as a memorial to World War I. It also supports Sandridge Rovers F.C., who play in the

Hertfordshire Senior County League The Hertfordshire Senior County League is a football competition based in Hertfordshire, England. Founded in 1898, there are currently two divisions at senior level and two divisions at reserve and development level. Sitting at step 7 of the N ...

. Sandridge was one of the earlier homes of the great English general,

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reign ...

, and his infamous wife,

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a piou ...

, a favourite of Queen Anne. The title Baron Sandridge was given to Churchill by James II in 1685, and was his first English

peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks. Peerages include: Australia * Australian peers Belgium * Belgi ...

title (his earlier title, Baron Eyemouth, had been created in 1682 by James's predecessor, Charles II, in the

Peerage of Scotland The Peerage of Scotland ( gd, Moraireachd na h-Alba, sco, Peerage o Scotland) is one of the five divisions of peerages in the United Kingdom and for those peers created by the King of Scots before 1707. Following that year's Treaty of Union, ...

). In 1939 the first

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

secret Wireless Intercept Station was constructed by the GPO at the top of Woodcock Hill. It was the first of a group of stations dedicated to Diplomatic Interception with rows of radio operators listening to the wireless traffic between Germany, Italy, Tokyo and other enemy embassies around the world. Messages intercepted at Sandridge were sent to

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

for decryption. The results were vital to

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

who used the information to make important decisions about the course of the war. After the Second World War it became part of the Diplomatic Wireless Service under GCHQ and in 1973 the site was taken over by the Home Office for police research. In 2008 the

Woodland Trust The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom and is concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native woodland Natural heritage, heritage. It has planted over 50 million trees since 1972 ...

announced plans to create a new forest north of Sandridge. The of woodland are to be called

Heartwood Forest Heartwood Forest is a planned forest ( woodland creation site) in Hertfordshire, England. The site covers , the largest continuous new native forest in England. Planting Heartwood Forest is located near Sandridge, St Albans, in the Metropolitan ...

References

Facts about Sandridge
Some dates in the history of St Leonard's Church, Sandridge, A paper read at a meeting of the St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archeological Society, held at Sandridge, June 24, 1900 by the Rev J.A. Cruikshank M.A.

External links

Sandridge Parish Council
{{authority control City of St Albans Civil parishes in Hertfordshire History of telecommunications in the United Kingdom Science and technology in Hertfordshire Villages in Hertfordshire