Old Hatfield

Last updated

Old Hatfield
'Horse And Groom' public house on Park Street, Old Hatfield - geograph.org.uk - 1340063.jpg
Horse And Groom public house on Park Street, Old Hatfield
Hertfordshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Old Hatfield
Location within Hertfordshire
OS grid reference TL2308
Civil parish
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Hatfield
Postcode district AL9
Police Hertfordshire
Fire Hertfordshire
Ambulance East of England
List of places
UK
England
Hertfordshire
51°45′44″N0°12′50″W / 51.7621°N 0.2139°W / 51.7621; -0.2139

Old Hatfield, sometimes called Bishops Hatfield, is a historic village in Hertfordshire, England. It is in the town of Hatfield.

Contents

It grew up on the Great North Road, one day's journey from London by horse or coach and once had many coaching inns. It was a convenient place for the Bishops of Ely to have a lodging, giving access to both the cathedral in Ely to the north and the capital to the south. A village grew up adjacent to the estate of Bishops palace. The parish church of St Etheldreda's Church, Hatfield was named by the Bishops after their patron saint Æthelthryth. [1] [2] [3]

A market was once held in Fore Street.

When Hatfield was developed as a new town after World War Two, Old Hatfield was deliberately left unspoilt by development and through traffic and so retains an historic feel.

History

Old Hatfield is the result of the houses and farms which have been established near a place of worship featured by a few religious buildings by the Monks. In fact, in 970, King Edgar the Peaceful and his wife had inherited the estate from Æthelflaed's parents. The place is very attractive, there are arable lands, forests and a river some marshes bring a natural boundary against enemy. They give it to the Monks against the promise to build a church. [4]

Sainte Ethelreda 's church Hatfield St Etheldreda.jpg
Sainte Ethelreda 's church

Over the years, needs evolve at the same time as a village gets bigger and grows up with new religious buildings. Over the years, and during 4 centuries, successively the site has belonged to the Monks, to the Abbots and to the Bishop of Ely until John Morton (cardinal) who builds there in 1485, near a parish church named St Etheldreda what is going to become Bishop Hatfield. [5]

Hatfield Palace Garden parterre Old Palace Hatfield House Hertfordshire England.jpg
Hatfield Palace

The construction made of red bricks bearing a timber roof, according to medieval architectural style, is a quadrilateral featured by four wings with a yard inside. It is known that the estate was attended by the royal family since Henry VII of England and later his son, Henry VIII of England who decided to use the manor as the royal nursery. In 1538, he exchanged the estate with Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely, against bishoprics located in Cambridgeshire and Essex that he had seized before during the Reformation's very first laws. Then all later Tudor dynastic rulers would attend this manor, then better known as Hatfield Palace. The Stuart dynasty's first sovereign, James VI and I, in 1607, was to exchange Hatfield Palace against Theobalds House, Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury's house.

North facing view of Hatfield House Hatfield House.jpg
North facing view of Hatfield House

He decided to wreck three wings of the building and use the bricks to construct Cecil's new house which was named as Hatfield House, a Jacobean architectural style construction. [6] Today, both buildings, grade I listed building, with parks and Elizabeth's Knot Garden are open to the public and can be visited, in the vicinity of Hatfield township. [7]

1, 3 & 5 Park Street features two very rare 17th century wall paintings featuring grotesques and a cloth like texture, providing valuable insight into the development of interior decor. Historic England increased the buildings' listed status to Grade Two* in 2020. [8] [9]

Civil parish

On 1 October 1951 the parish of Bishops Hatfield was abolished to form Hatfield, part also went to Welwyn Garden City. [10] In 1951 the parish had a population of 13,834. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatfield, Hertfordshire</span> Town in Hertfordshire, England

Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It had a population of 29,616 in 2001, 39,201 at the 2011 Census, and 41,265 at the 2021 Census. The settlement is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, home of the Marquess of Salisbury, forms the nucleus of the old town. From the 1930s when de Havilland opened a factory, until the 1990s when British Aerospace closed it, aircraft design and manufacture employed more people there than any other industry. Hatfield was one of the post-war New Towns built around London and has much modernist architecture from the period. The University of Hertfordshire is based there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatfield House</span> Country house in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England

Hatfield House is a Grade I listed country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house, a leading example of the prodigy house, was built in 1611 by Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury and Chief Minister to King James I. It is a prime example of Jacobean architecture. The estate includes extensive grounds and surviving parts of an earlier palace. The house is currently the home of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury. It is open to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinner</span> Area of north west London

Pinner is a suburb in the London Borough of Harrow, northwest London, England, 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Charing Cross, close to the border with Hillingdon, historically in the county of Middlesex. The population was 38,698 in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tulse Hill</span> Human settlement in England

Tulse Hill is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in South London that sits on Brockwell Park. It is approximately five miles from Charing Cross and is bordered by Brixton, Dulwich, Herne Hill, Streatham and West Norwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shackleford</span> Human settlement in England

Shackleford is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Guildford, Surrey, England centred to the west of the A3 between Guildford and Petersfield 32 miles (51 km) southwest of London and 5.2 miles (8.4 km) southwest of Guildford. Shackleford includes the localities of Eashing, Hurtmore, Norney and Gatwick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hursley</span> Human settlement in England

Hursley is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England with a population of around 900 in 2011. It is located roughly midway between Romsey and Winchester on the A3090. Besides the village the parish includes the hamlets of Standon and Pitt and the outlying settlement at Farley Chamberlayne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Staindrop</span> Village in County Durham, England

Staindrop is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is situated approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) north east of Barnard Castle, on the A688 road. According to the 2011 UK census the population was 1,310, this includes the hamlets of Cleatlam and Killerby.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingsthorpe</span> Suburb in Northampton, England

Kingsthorpe is a suburb and civil parish of Northampton, England. It is situated to the north of Northampton town centre and is served by the A508 and A5199 roads which join at Kingsthorpe's centre. The 2011 Census recorded the population of the district council ward as 4,477.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drayton, Leicestershire</span> Human settlement in England

Drayton is a small village and civil parish in the Harborough district of south-east Leicestershire, bordering Northamptonshire and Rutland. It is situated 6.7 miles (11 km) northeast of Market Harborough and 5 miles (7.5 km) southwest of Uppingham on the north side of the Welland valley. Nearby villages are Bringhurst, Great Easton and Nevill Holt. The church of St James in Drayton is one of the smallest churches in England.

Samuel Sanders Teulon was an English Gothic Revival architect, noted for his use of polychrome brickwork and the complex planning of his buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walton, Suffolk</span> Human settlement in England

Walton is a settlement and former civil parish, now in the parish of Felixstowe, in the East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England, lying between the rivers Orwell and Deben. In 1911 the parish had a population of 4226.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siston</span> Human settlement in England

Siston is a small village in South Gloucestershire, England. It is 7 miles (11 km) east of Bristol at the confluence of the two sources of the Siston Brook, a tributary of the River Avon. The village consists of a number of cottages and farms centred on St Anne's Church, and the grand Tudor manor house of Siston Court. Anciently it was bordered to the west by the royal Hunting Forest of Kingswood, stretching westward most of the way to Bristol Castle, always a royal possession, caput of the Forest. The local part of the disafforested Kingswood became Siston Common but has recently been eroded by the construction of the Avon Ring Road and housing developments. In 1989 the village and environs were classed as a conservation area and thus have statutory protection from overdevelopment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baumber</span> Village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England

Baumber is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately 4 miles (6 km) north-west from Horncastle, and at the junction of the B1225 and the A158 roads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nonington</span> Human settlement in England

Nonington, is a civil parish and village in east Kent, halfway between the historic city of Canterbury and the channel port town of Dover. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Easole Street, to which it is conjoined, Holt Street and Frogham. The 2021 census gives the population of the parish as 920. The area of the parish at 31 December 2020 is 2,510 acres (1,020 ha).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Etheldreda's Church, London</span> Church in London, England

St Etheldreda's Church is a Roman Catholic church in Ely Place, off Charterhouse Street in Holborn, London. The building is one of only two surviving in London from the reign of Edward I, and dates from between 1250 and 1290. It is dedicated to Æthelthryth, or Etheldreda, the Anglo-Saxon saint who founded the monastery at Ely in 673. It was the chapel of the London residence of the Bishops of Ely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grade I listed buildings in Somerset</span> Buildings of exceptional interest in Somerset

The Grade I listed buildings in Somerset, England, demonstrate the history and diversity of its architecture. The ceremonial county of Somerset consists of a non-metropolitan county, administered by Somerset County Council, which is divided into five districts, and two unitary authorities. The districts of Somerset are West Somerset, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, Mendip and Sedgemoor. The two administratively independent unitary authorities, which were established on 1 April 1996 following the breakup of the county of Avon, are North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset. These unitary authorities include areas that were once part of Somerset before the creation of Avon in 1974.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lilford Hall</span> Grade I listed in Lilford-cum-Wigsthorpe and Thorpe Achurch, England

Lilford Hall is a Grade I listed Jacobean stately home in Northamptonshire in the United Kingdom. The 100-room house is located in the eastern part of the county, south of Oundle and north of Thrapston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedars Park, Cheshunt</span> Historic public park originally the site of Theobalds Palace in Hertfordshire, England

Cedars Park is a historic public park located in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, England. It was originally the site of Theobalds Palace, King James I's favourite residence. The park has received a Green Flag Award every year since 2009, rewarding it for promoting high standards of management for green spaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Etheldreda's Church, Hatfield</span> Church in Hertfordshire, England

St Etheldreda's is the Anglican parish church of Old Hatfield, Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. Parts of the building are 13th century and there is evidence there was a church here before this in Saxon times. It is situated in the old village of Hatfield just east of the modern town of Hatfield and close to the walls of Hatfield House, once a royal palace. It once also served Hatfield House as a place of worship as well as the village and so is exceptionally grand for a parish church. The dedication to St Etheldreda derives from the Bishops of Ely for whom she is a patron saint and who once occupied the House when it was a bishops' palace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hitchin Priory</span>

Hitchin Priory in Hitchin in Hertfordshire is today a hotel built in about 1700 on the site of a Carmelite friary founded in 1317, which was closed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of Henry VIII. Parts of the original priory are incorporated in the existing building, which has been a Grade I listed building on the Register of Historic England since 1951.

References

  1. "Parishes: Hatfield | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. 1912. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  2. "Bishop's Hatfield | British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. 1910. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  3. (www.communitysites.co.uk), Community Sites. "First published in the Bishops Hatfield Parish Magazine (May-June) 1904 | Hatfield As It was Five Hundred Years Ago | AD1501-1900 | History of Hatfield | Our Hatfield". www.ourhatfield.org.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  4. British History Academy
  5. British History Academy
  6. British History Academy
  7. Hatfield Palace
  8. "Captivating Sites Across England Listed During 2020 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  9. "1, 3 & 5 Park Street, Hatfield - 1100999 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  10. "Hatfield Registration District". UKBMD. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  11. "Population statistics Bishops Hatfield AP/CP through time". A Vision of Britain through Time . Retrieved 1 November 2022.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Old Hatfield at Wikimedia Commons