Westwick Row is a place in Hertfordshire, in

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 is situated on the edge of

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 ...

. Westwick Row today is a narrow

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...

lane in the village of

Leverstock Green Leverstock Green is a suburb in Hemel Hempstead, in the English county of Hertfordshire. It is located on the eastern edge of the town. Leverstock Green has a school, Leverstock Green Church of England Primary School, cricket club, tennis clu ...

, part of it is within the jurisdiction of St Albans Rural District Council, and part with

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 ...

Borough Council. It was originally within the parish of St Michael's, St Albans. It runs into the main St Albans Road at its most easterly end, at Corner Farm, and into Green Lane at its most westerly end, being connected to the main road also by Pancake Lane. At the 2011 Census the population was still included in the City of St Albans Ward of St. Michaels. It was once the central lane of the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

vill Vill is a term used in English history to describe the basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing. Medieval developments The vill was the smallest territorial and administrative unit—a geographical ...

and Manor of Westwick, and indications are that it was not only the main thoroughfare in medieval times, but was also the main thoroughfare of the Anglo Saxon village and manor of the same name, and indeed was in all probability an

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 ...

trackway. The line of the original Iron Age trackway continues at the westerly end via Buncefield Lane. Several

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

s are to be found along Westwick Row, namely: Dell Cottage (early to mid 17th century); Westwick Cottage (Grade II* late 12th century/early 13th century with later additions); King Charles II Cottage (17th century); Westwick Row Farmhouse (15th century); Westwick Row Farm Barns (18th century); Corner Farm House (16th century); and Corner Farm outbuildings (18th century). Westwick Farm, known to have dated back to the

Tudor era The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began with t ...

was in a poor state of repair and was demolished in the mid 19th century by the

Earl of Verulam Earl of Verulam is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for James Grimston, 4th Viscount Grimston. He was made Viscount Grimston (in the peerage of the United Kingdom) at the same time. Verulam had previously ...

when the farm was added to the portfolio of his estate of Gorhambury. It was replaced with the present farmhouse. From at least the early 19th century to the early 20th century several farm labourers' cottages were also to be found along Westwick Row. These were gradually demolished in the 20th century when new housing was built in Curtis Road. Several good sized properties were further built at the western end of the Row in the early to mid 20th century, and a small estate of executive houses were built on the site of Handpost Lodge. Evidence points to a Great

Tithe Barn A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious orga ...

, belonging to the St Albans Abbey, Monastery at St Albans, which once stood along Westwick Row near to the present day Westwick Warren. This was demolished in the mid 17th century. Evidence of a Romano-British Roman Villa, Villa at Handpost Lodge, Westwick Row was discovered in 1998. Other archaeological finds date to the Late Neolithic, Bronze Age, Bronze &

s and includes a Bronze Age hoard discovered by Sir John Evans (archaeologist), John Evans in the mid 19th century. This consisted of a looped socketed bronze axe, fragments of another axe and five lumps of copper. With the exception of one lump of metal that John Evans donated to the British Museum, the rest of the find is at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

References

{{Listed buildings in Hertfordshire Hamlets in Hertfordshire Hemel Hempstead Late Neolithic