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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

between the city centre of

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 ...

( to the south-west) and

Wheathampstead Wheathampstead is a large village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north of St Albans. Included within the parish is the small hamlet of Amwell. The built up area of Wheathampstead had an estimated population of 4,628 in 2022, whilst ...

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, forming part of the contiguous built-up area of St Albans.

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 Mercia, 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 ...

. It was given by Egfrith son of

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

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 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 St Albans, Hertfordshire, England (the First Battle of St Albans had been fought in 1455). The army of the Yorkist faction, under the Earl of War ...

took place in and around Sandridge as the

Earl of Warwick Earl of Warwick is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom which has been created four times in English history. The name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick. Overview The first creation came in 1088, and the title was held b ...

, for the Yorkists, retreated towards Nomansland.

Information

The population of Sandridge

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 ...

at the time of the 2021

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

was 11,919. This includes some people living in the Jersey Farm area of St Albans and partly the Marshalswick area. 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 (from Old English ''līc'', corpse) or resurrection gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard. Examples also exist outside the British Isles in places such as Newfoundland, the ...

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 four divisions at reserve and development level. Sitting at step 7 of the Nat ...

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

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough General (United Kingdom), 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 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was a Briti ...

, and his infamous wife,

Sarah Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch, prophet, and 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 pious woma ...

, 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 Life peer, non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted Imperial, royal and noble ranks, noble ranks. Peerages include: A ...

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 (; ) 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 1707, Treaty of Union, the Kingdom of Scots and the ...

). In 1939 the first

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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 Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

for decryption. The results were vital to

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

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. It is home to a small grass airfield to the north, named Coleman Green Airstrip which is used for general aviation. 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 heritage. It has planted over 68 million trees since 1972. The Woodland Tru ...

announced plans to create a new forest north of Sandridge. The of woodland are now 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 Metropolita ...

. The forest surrounds the north and northwest of the

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