Sandon is a village and civil parish in the

North Hertfordshire North Hertfordshire is one of ten local government districts in the county of Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Letchworth Garden City and the largest town is Hitchin. The district also includes the towns of Baldock and Royston ...

district of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, England. The village lies north-west of

Buntingford Buntingford is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It lies next to the River Rib and is located on the historic Roman road, Ermine Street. As a ...

, its

post town A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system.Royal Mail, ''Address Management Guide'', (2004) Including the correct post town in t ...

, and east of

Baldock Baldock ( ) is a historic market town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. The River Ivel rises from springs in the town. It lies north of London and north northwest of the county town of Hertford. Nearby towns inc ...

. The parish also includes the hamlets of Green End and Roe Green, and Blagrove Common, a nature reserve. The population of the parish was 493 at the 2021 census.

Geography

The ancient

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, withi ...

, now part of the

A505 road The A505 is a road in the East of England. It follows part of the route of the Icknield Way and the corresponding Icknield Way Path and runs from Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire to the A11 road (England), A11 Abington Interchange North in Cam ...

, forms part of the northern boundary of the parish of Sandon, but there is little development in the parish near that road. Instead, settlement in the parish is in a number of clusters on a chalk ridge to the south, including Church End and Payne End (which have coalesced to form the main village today), alongside Roe Green nearby to the west. To the south-east, on a tributary of the

River Rib The River Rib is a tributary of the River Lea, which runs from Buckland in Hertfordshire, England. It flows into the River Lea to the east of Hertford. Course The River Rib originates near the East Hertfordshire village of Buckland, Hertfords ...

, lie the hamlets of Green End and Mill End. Gannock Green is a small hamlet to the north of the village. The

Icknield Way Path The Icknield Way Path or Icknield Way Trail is a long distance footpath and riding route in East Anglia, England. The ancient Icknield Way itself is unique among long-distance trails because it can claim to be ‘the oldest road in Britain’ ...

does not follow the ancient route of the road in this area, which is now a busy dual carriageway. Instead, the footpath passes through Sandon village on its journey from

Ivinghoe Beacon Ivinghoe Beacon is a prominent hill and landmark in Buckinghamshire, England, 233 m (757 ft) above sea level in the Chiltern Hills, close to Ivinghoe and Aldbury. Dunstable, Berkhamsted and Tring are nearby. The Beacon lies within t ...

in Buckinghamshire to

Knettishall Heath Knettishall Heath is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Knettishall in Suffolk, England. A larger area of 176 hectares is the Knettishall Heath Nature Reserve, which is managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. Despite its n ...

in Suffolk.

History

Sandon appears in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, when it was owned by the canons of

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Paul the Apostle, is an Anglican cathedral in London, England, the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London in the Church of Engl ...

in London. A priest was mentioned as one of the householders at Sandon, suggesting it was already a parish by then. The parish church of All Saints was rebuilt in phases from the mid-14th century. The earliest surviving fabric in the current building is the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

, which is known to have been rebuilt around 1348; the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

was subsequently rebuilt around the 1360s and the tower and porch were added around 1400. Substantial brick

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es were added to the tower for support in the 17th century. The manor house, known as Sandon Bury, stands to the south of the church. The current house there dates from 1661. One of the barns in the farmyard at Sandon Bury appears to be a rare surviving medieval barn. Analysis by

dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of chronological dating, dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, ...

indicates that the barn's timbers were probably felled between 1266 and 1268.

Governance

There are three tiers of local government covering Sandon, at

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

, and

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

level: Sandon Parish Council, North Hertfordshire District Council, and

Hertfordshire County Council Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England. The council was created in 1889. It is responsible for a wide range of public services in the county, including social c ...

. The parish council meets at the village hall on the green.

References

External links

Listed buildings in Sandon
* http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=4390 Villages in Hertfordshire Civil parishes in Hertfordshire North Hertfordshire District {{hertfordshire-geo-stub