Hastoe (Halstowe or Halstoe in the 13th century) is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in the

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 authorit ...

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 ...

. It is located in the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshi ...

, 1.7m south of the town of Tring in the county of

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 gov ...

and on the county boundary with

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...

. The highest point in Hertfordshire is above sea level, this is a quarter-mile (400 m) from Hastoe within

Pavis Wood Pavis Wood is an area of woodland on a hill located near Hastoe in Tring, north-western Hertfordshire, England. A point on its eastern slopes is the highest point in the county of Hertfordshire at . The area is often considered as ancient woodla ...

. Running close to Hastoe is

Grim's Ditch Grim's Ditch, Grim's Dyke (also Grimsdyke or Grimes Dike in derivative names) or Grim's Bank is a name shared by a number of prehistoric bank and ditch linear earthworks across England. They are of different dates and may have had different funct ...

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 mostly ...

structure built around 300BC. The section in the Chilterns runs from Bradenham to

Pitstone Pitstone (formerly Pightelsthorn, with possible variation Pychelesthorn in 1399) is a village and civil parish in east Buckinghamshire, England. It is at the foot of the central range of the Chiltern Hills, centred east of Aylesbury and south o ...

. In the 13th century the manor of Hastoe was conveyed to Ralph le Clerk of Tring by Thomas de Northwode. During the 14th century the lands came into the possession of the

Verney family The Verney family purchased the manor of Middle Claydon in Buckinghamshire, England, in the 1460s and still resides there today at the manor house known as Claydon House. This family had been seated previously at Fleetmarston in Buckinghamshire ...

. This resulted in the manor being annexed to the manor of Bunstreux and Richardyns. Hastoe has been closely associated with Tring with parts of Hastoe being incorporated into the Manor of Great Tring in the 17th century. During the 19th century Hastoe became closely associated with the

Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of Fr ...

. Nathan Rothschild had begun to rent land and properties in the area as early as 1833, including Hastoe House, a large property in the centre of the hamlet. Nathan's son,

Lionel de Rothschild Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (22 November 1808 – 3 June 1879) was a British Jewish banker, politician and philanthropist who was a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England. He became the first practising Jew to sit ...

like most of the family was said to be obsessed with hunting and set up his own kennels at Hastoe in 1838. Subsequently, Hastoe being as part of the Tring estate, came into the hands of Lionel de Rothschild acquiring it at auction in 1872. Many of the building of Hastoe were built by the Rothschilds, some following the demolition of earlier properties such as the Hastoe Brewery in 1882. Farm buildings were added to Hastoe, Oakengrove and Longcroft Farms and cottages erected for farm workers. Also built by the family were a chapel, which continued to serve a congregation until 1962, a

corn mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separate ...

, which burned down in 1964, and a distinctive

Village Hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

known as the Hastoe Room frequented by the Working Man's Club. The Rothschild's estate was sold at auction in October 1938.Matters Village Website
Retrieved 12 September 2010 Richard Llewellyn-Davies (1912–1981) was created Baron Llewelyn-Davies, of Hastoe on 16 January 1964. He was an architect and designer of

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

. Annie Patricia Llewellyn-Davies (1915–1997) his wife and Labour Party politician, became Baroness Llewelyn-Davies of Hastoe, on 29 August 1967.

References

{{reflist, 30em Hamlets in Hertfordshire Dacorum