Here you see all of the archived posts for the Hertfordshire Greens series published during spring-autumn 2020, a strange period dominated by the Corona Virus pandemic.
Hertfordshire Greens
Hertfordshire has 159 places with Green in their name, says Lee Prosser in An Historical Atlas of Hertfordshire (University of Hertfordshire Press, 2011) and around one third are mentioned before 1500. Tom Williamson (The Origins of Hertfordshire, University of Hertfordshire Press, 2010, pp231-233) says many developed in the 12th and 13th centuries from isolated farmsteads, although some bear…
Bassus Green – full circle
This is the final post in the Hertfordshire Greens series. And it’s a return to where we started. The photo heading the introductory page (reproduced as the post previous to this) was taken in 2017 – the only photo not taken this year. It showed three oak tree skeletons against a background view from the…
Wilkin’s Green and the vanishing greens
We turned off the A1057, the old Hatfield Road from St. Albans, into a country lane and found Wilkin’s Green just a hundred yards off the main drag. There’s a farmhouse, then a tiny triangle of lanes enclosing a former smithy. From there we headed down a byway towards Bullen’s Green, crossing the Smallford Trail,…
Kettle Green
Kettle Green – fittingly – lies on Kettle Green Lane, near Hadham Cross. A few houses and farms dot the country road but my assumption is that Kettle Green Farm is most likely to be on or near the site of the original farmstead in cleared land. If that’s the case, then it fits one…
Perry Green
The leisurely route to Perry Green led down winding lanes and across the fords of the River Ash. This is the Perry Green near Bishop’s Stortford, not the one previously visited out Harpenden way. Crossing one ford, a kingfisher perched on the depth measuring pole. Perhaps a couple of dozen houses line the Y-shape formed…
Crabb’s Green
We picked our way along a footpath and over some fallow land from Stocking Pelham to Crabb’s Green. The hamlet is a stone’s throw from the Essex border that on this stretch exhibits no obvious geological or topographical logic so we have typical ‘Hertfordshire Greens’ a mile or two inside Essex. The few houses of…
Upwick Green, Walnuttree Green
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA The view from this bench in a field in Upwick Green was bucolic until the roadworks started. A dumper truck kicks up dust in the middle distance and out of shot there’s a long scar across the countryside. The noise from this far off is not loud but it is persistent. The…
Epping Green
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA There’s no pavement along the road running through Epping Green, which meant it was a little tricky taking photos. The most imposing building is a brick stud farm with its cupola. The bricks are etched with the names and initials of innumerable youngsters. There’s a pub set back from the road and…
Here there be dragons
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA The Hertford and Bishop’s Stortford Ordnance Survey shows at least 20 greens to the north of Bishop’s Stortford, so off we set off on a reconnaissance trip. We were just a few hundred yards from Killem’s Green when we spotted it – a ‘Welcome to Essex’ sign. I’d forgotten the Essex bulge…
Wellpond Green and Westland Green
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Bar a Marmite angular newbuild, this fabulous old barn is the only building of note in Westland Green, unless what you are noting is size, expanse of garden and price. We got there by the ill-advised route from the Hadhams, the final stretch being through a farmyard. The houses sit among trees…
Bury Green
Truth be told, we didn’t mean to go to Bury Green. A subscriber alerted us to a whole collection of greens on the land above and between the Rib and Stort valleys. We missed a turn for our intended stop and meandered on through the lanes of East Hertfordshire until we happened upon Bury Green.…
Todds Green
The Thatched Cottage – claiming to date from the 14th century – is the only venerable building in Todds Green, which otherwise comprises a Victorian terrace on the single turning off the new Stevenage Road, a number of pleasant but unremarkable first half of the 20th century houses plus a few newer builds, and a…
Welham Green
Apologies Welham Green but this what the name meant to me when I was commuting back and forth from London – a blur of vehicle parks and anonymous warehouses crowding a quaint old railway halt. In fact, Welham Green station is not a Victorian relic. It was only opened in 1986, a recognition that constant…
Hatching Green
Where Kinsbourne Green (previous post) is to the north of Harpenden, Hatching Green is to the south of the old town, to the west of the common and the main Harpenden Road. The remaining patch of green space is alongside Redbourn Lane, which has a steady flow of traffic. The shape of the grassy patch…
Kinsbourne Green
We live in Hitchin, which is in the same parliamentary constituency as Harpenden. But for most people a trip from the one to the other is a rare event. They are old market towns of a similar size so, largely, what you find in the one you find in the other. And communications in Hertfordshire…
Ayot Green
This venerable old gentleman on his walking frame and his fellow oaks and Horse Chestnut cousins line the two lanes passing through Ayot Green, their shadows dappling the tarmac. The grass is clipped short, the gardens of the handsome brick cottages well tended, contributing to Ayot Green’s attempt at quiet composure. In the depths of…
Crouch Green
We’d walked or run around Crouch Green on many occasions without knowing it was a former green, let alone that it had a name. It nestles in the arms of two lanes, one of them being Three Houses Lane that comes up from Langley Bottom before dipping down to the Mimram valley and Whitwell. The…
Howe Green
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA A narrow and easy to miss turning off the B158 where it parallels the River Lea on its way to Hertford. A couple of twists in the lane. A handful of characterful houses, a copse and a pond. Then the road becomes a bridleway. And that’s about it for Howe Green. Rather…
Reed Green, Gannock Green
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Encapsulation of the idyll of rural England: bus stop, phone box, letter box, parish notice board, standing in front of the village hall, the photograph taken from the boundary of the cricket field. All it needs is a pub in the background. Sadly, the local is under threat. The cricket field stands…
Burnham Green
Burnham Green has a more lived-in feel than its near neighbour Harmer Green. It’s got a larger population, and a post office shop and a pub. It’s not a preserve of the well-to-do either though it’s only a stone’s throw from the millionaires’ reserve at Tewin Wood. The larger area of green is bordered on…
Harmer Green
Harmer Green stands on high ground above Welwyn North and Digswell. A winding road leads down to the station at Welwyn North and there is a woodside footpath towards Woolmer Green and a dog’s leg route to Burnham Green avoiding the road (both places covered in earlier posts). Monied is the word for Harmer Green.…
Birch Green, Staines Green
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA We turned off Cole Green Way and made our way over ripe fields of grain to Birch Green, which has a number of houses built in the last century and a few older cottages. From there we cut through to the smaller settlement at Staines Green. Although the two are distinct and…
Labby Green, Letty Green
Labby Green is joined at the hip to Cole Green (previous post). Walking down the road from the latter, there’s another exclusive, authentic, original barn-conversion-appearance development underway, looking much like all the rest. Further down there’s a thriving pub doing grub that probably served as little railway hotel because just next to it a track…
Cole Green
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA For those of a certain age, a sign like this still prompts the thought “how many Eye Spy points will I get for that?” We saw this on a former coaching road leading out of Cole Green which is given primacy over its near neighbours Labby Green and Letty Green. The old…
A clutch more near Datchworth
Apart from Datchworth Green (previous post), there are several other greens around Datchworth. Painter’s Green is a big barley field in the crook of a little road leading to Bull’s Green and Bramfield, crossed by the footpaths from Datchworth Green to Datchworth church. The original green at Raffin Green is beyond the current reach of…
Datchworth Green
Datchworth Green is in one of the clusters of greens to the northeast and east of Welwyn, some two dozen greens in all. Datchworth itself sits on slightly higher ground, its church steeple visible from miles around, and it looks down towards Datchworth Green some half a mile away. You don’t notice if you take…
Butterfield Green
The trip to Butterfield Green required venturing into Bedfordshire. We got there by footpath from Lilley but the majority of walkers probably come over the hills from Luton. There are extensive walks around Galley Hill and Warden Hill. The hamlet is clearly marked on the current Ordnance Survey but is absent from some late 19th…
Symonds Green
A reminder of the times, the woman’s walking-aid trolley suggests she may be in a vulnerable to Covid-19 category and her face mask in open air, indicate her concern. She’s sitting on a park bench in Symonds Green, one of the greens subsumed by Stevenage. Unlike Fishers Green (see an earlier post) a few hundred…
Bull’s Green
The aptly-named Horns pub at Bull’s Green has been there since 1535 although only as an ale house since the 18th century. There’s an excellent potted history – including its moment of notoriety – here, thanks to Camra. A clutch of houses stands around the sward and that looks to be it. In fact, down…
Shilley Green
Once coppiced beeches line the lane from Hitch Wood to Shilley Green where its forks to the Easthall hamlets one way, gently down the valley slope to Langley another way, or more steeply down a byway to Langley Bottom. An old farm stands back from a grassy patch, dominated by a magnificent ash tree -…
Warren’s Green
Warren’s Green is one of the four greens on the periphery of the old grounds of Weston Park. We’ve already looked at Friend’s Green, Damask Green and Hall’s Green. It’s on the same skein of paths and minor roads with each end of the tiny settlement – two cottages – bracketed by right angle twists…
Hall’s Green
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Hall’s Green is only a mile or so northeast of the Stevenage extension of Great Ashby but there’s no direct road link so the green rests peacefully. The narrow roads in this patch are bewildering, twisting and turning apparently at random until you look at the Ordnance Survey map. Combined with the…
Bericot Green
This is a shot of the disused Panshanger Aerodrome, a World War II training base and later a flying school. From the Ordnance Survey, it looks as if the airfield swallowed up much of Bericot Green although there are some scruffy light industrial buildings at the top of Moneyhole Lane off the B1000 from Welwyn…
Greens around Therfield
Therfield straddles the pre-historic Icknield Way on high ground above a heath dotted with tumuli and delightful Ordnance Survey markings like Hopscotch and Duckpuddle Bush. But that’s all to the north and we started off heading south, looping back in a circular walk that took in five greens. First up was Duck’s Green, which is…
Nup End Green, Tagmore Green
These two are about a mile apart. We combined them in one short walk from Codicote. Four winding country lanes meet at Nup End Green and delivery drivers can be seen puzzling over which turning is most likely to get them to Hogsnorton or the Bothy or wherever. We got to Nup End Green along…
Sootfield Green
The chimney is of the only house in Sootfield Green, which is close to Preston on the high ground to the south of Hitchin. (It’s not marked on Google Maps but if you look at the satellite photo link, it’s at the centre of the X formed by the road and the wooded byway. It…
Peter’s Green and neighbours
Life continued in Peter’s Green during lock down. Fresh fish and the pub being spruced up for re-opening. I wasn’t gazing through the window of an Edwardian lady’s boudoir, just passing Peter’s Green village hall where the needlework classes may be a bit on the specialised side. Perry Green backs directly on to Peter’s Green…
Levens Green
It’s good to see a green being used as a commons. At Levens Green we found this pony grazing the west end of the grassland in the centre of the hamlet and two more tethered at the east end. After the disappointment of Potters Green (previous post), getting to Levens Green was a pleasure. It’s…
Potters Green
Potters Green (on Whitehill, just to the east of the golf course on the map) was depressing. The stroll from Levens Green to the north was enjoyable – down a track, over a meadow and through a newly-planted extension to an ancient wood. An old cottage at Potters Green is pleasant enough but overshadowed by…
Sacombe Green
Another old Roman road runs through Sacombe Green, a country lane petering into a byway. The old rectory, presumably once attached to Sacombe church which is half a mile away along a footpath, and a big old farm are beautiful. There is a handful of pleasant cottages and some decent views across East Hertfordshire monoculture…
Flanders Green
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Flanders Green is another of those not marked on Google Maps (though it is on the Ordnance Survey and footpath signs). Click on the link and it’s just south of the area marked as Brook Green, outside Cottered. Part of it was turned over to sweet corn cultivation when we walked through.…
Wandon Green
Wandon Green isn’t marked on Google Maps but click on the link and it comprises Wandon Green cottages where you see the pin for architectural consultants Louis de Soissons, whose founder was commissioned to design Welwyn Garden City, plus a farm (below) close to the T-junction just to the north. It’s a mile to the…
Tea Green
Tea Green lies between Mangrove Green and Breachwood Green. It’s inside Hertfordshire but only just. The pub must attract people from outside of the hamlet to survive – or the few locals have a healthy thirst. Tea Green has a bus stop and a water tower and not a lot more. Nothing wrong with that.…
Breachwood Green
The shot above shows flints gathered from the adjacent field outside Breachwood Green. The abundance of flint in the land above and to the east of the Lilley Bottom valley indicates a variation in the geology and soil compared to the area to the west. And that shows in the local flora. Foxgloves are abundant.…
Mill Green
The working mill at Mill Green draws its water from the River Lea just before it flows into the lake in the great park at Hatfield House. The site is noted for its mill in the Domesday Book and the present building dates from the 17th century. We arrived in late July and it still…
Whempstead Green
Whempstead Green is a couple of miles down the road from Burn’s Green (see a previous post), though we took a circuitous route that started off down a hollow way behind the pub at Burn’s Green and then carried on across open fields with poppies in their few days of perfection. (Open the hyperlinked map…
Nobland Green
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA For the return journey from Wareside to Hitchin we took the ‘pretty route’ so we could say we’d been through the location marked on the map as Cold Christmas. The name is reputed to come from a macabre local legend. The road took us through Nobland Green where a farm stands on…
Babbs Green
Babbs Green and the adjacent Newhall Green are the northern hamlets in the cluster that make up Wareside. Some early 20th century housing joined the few old cottages like the one above and Appleton Farm. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA More recently these were joined by newer houses that overlook the allotments we passed on our way…
Reeves Green
Reeves Green is the second of the batch in Wareside parish that we nosed around. It’s not marked on the map but look for the school logo to the left of the White Horse and that’s it. The primary school is from the pages of a children’s novel of rustic adventure. It sits next to…
Across the Great Divide
Helham Green We travelled to the other side of the world to find Helham Green and its neighbours. They are in Wareside parish, just east of the Greenwich Meridian. Wareside village is a two-pub hub for the surrounding hamlets but the local primary school is in Reeves Green and the church is nearer to Babbs…
Friend’s Green
The old tiles look sturdy and heavy to bear but notice the apparent fragility of the roof frame. The beams at the crest of the roof are bowed. You can see they have been cut from trees, unlike the precision cut timber you’d buy from a yard today. The timber frame of the building to…
Shaw Green to Cumberlow Green
>OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA The green at Shaw Green is a couple of hundred yards south of the cluster of houses and farms, next to Shaw Green cottages, a paddock through which runs Shawgreen Way, a broad path although one that was blocked beyond the green by a fallen tree when we last went through. But…
Two greens on the Mimram
Poplars Green and Archers Green I love the little River Mimram. Its name is so ancient – pre-Celtic – that its meaning isn’t known. It rises near Whitwell and, along with the Beane and the Rib, joins the Lea at Hertford. Over-extraction and increasingly dry summers sometimes reduce it to a trickle in places and…
Norton Green
The pond in Norton Green’s Watery Grove hosts newts and frogs and toads. Purple Emperor butterflies are reputed to visit the tree tops of the common. The sunflower mural on the end of a row of cottages cheers a trip – and here’s the rub – southwards on the A1M. The hamlet is just yards…
Rush Green
This is the Rush Green on the road from Hitchin to Codicote – there are at least a couple of others. There’s a working farm there, overwhelmed by a clutch of body shops and metal bashers and a vast graveyard of scrapped lorries, impressive in its own way and visible from the hills overlooking the…
Woolmer Green
I took a diversion when I spotted some strange shapes in the distance and came upon an artist’s studio in a farmyard on the edge of Woolmer Green The village straddles the old Great North Road and you’d think nothing of it – a bit of Knebworth gone astray or a chunk of Oaklands (bizarre…
Mangrove Green
What links a hamlet on the very edge of Hertfordshire – Luton’s outskirts lurking a field’s length away – to sub-tropical swamps? Nothing. The name Mangrove Green derives from ‘thicket in common use or possession,’ from the Old English gemǣne , ‘common,’ and græfe, says the Survey of English Place Names, not from the mangrove (a word likely…
Coleman Green
Coleman Green, not to be confused with Colemans Green, near Breachwood Green, comprises the John Bunyan pub and a handful of cottages surrounded by woodland and a hollow lane leading to Ayot Green and Welwyn. The association with Bunyan, Puritan preacher, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, and Parliamentary trooper during the civil war is the preserved…
Wateringplace Green
I’ve given up trying to take a photograph of Wateringplace Green, so I’ve settled on a couple about it. It’s near Moor Green and just yards off Back Lane, the stretch of one-time Roman road that runs from Hare Street to Cherry Green. The ponds may have provided water for drovers’ stock moving down the…
Moor Green
Moor Green, like Roe Green, continues as a swathe of grassland with a handful of houses and farms dotted around it, several of them listed buidlings. There’s a moated manor set back from the green and nearby meadows and ancient woodland are a Site of Special Scientific Interest. With tall grass, high skies and few…
Cherry Green
Turning off the old Roman road of Back Lane just before it peters out at its eastern end, there’s a track up through the green of Cherry Green, the hamlet lying beyond this house. The green was uncut hayfield. At the top of the track, a disused gatepost is adorned with an antique, roughly made…
Westmill Green
We walked down the old Roman road that is now Back Lane from the expansive grassland at Moor Green, passing through Wateringplace Green to Cherry Green (all of which will have their blogs some time soon). Then we headed towards the farm at Wakeley to look across the site of a medieval village of the…
Redcoats Green
Redcoats Green isn’t named as such on the current Ordnance Survey, simply marking it as Redcoats. But the 1896 map has the complete name and there’s a road sign with the full name there. The venerable British History Online (BHO) recognises it, as do estate agents (although with less than half a dozen houses, they…
Roe Green
Roe Green near Buntingford is a favourite of mine. (There’s another that is now part of Hatfield.) I first stumbled across it on a walk along the ridge from Therfield to Clothall, emerging from the footpath across the fields from nearby Sandon and faced with an expanse of grassland. The edges of the green are…
Damask Green
There are two Damask Greens in Hertfordshire. This one is now part of Weston, which lies high up on the chalk above Baldock. The other is part of Hemel Hempstead. An 1896 map shows Damask Green as wholly distinct from Weston and there’s still clear space between the two in the 1946 map. The name…
Sedge Green
That’s it. It’s where three country lanes meet and it’s not on Google Maps. While there’s not a lot to see when you get there on your way to Datchworth Green, Bull’s Green, Woolmer Green or Burnham Green – positively metropolitan by contrast – a glance at the Ordnance Survey shows Sedge Green to have…
Fishers Green
Fishers Green is the first green I’ve blogged about that has been subsumed into the urban sprawl of Stevenage. There’s a large grassy space that may be an echo of the original green as it’s bordered by diverging footpaths that I’m guessing pre-date the roads that serve the housing estates. But there’s nothing of its…
Ley Green
Ley Green and its twin Cox Green sit in one of the valleys that strike through the North Hertfordshire Chilterns. A hamlet that once had a school though no church or even the non-conformist chapel found in many of the sparsely populated upland settlements. Although there is extensive beech and hornbeam woodland within a mile…
Burn’s Green
Burn’s Green has a pub and a chapel and an agricultural goods dealer, plus a handful of older houses. But most of what there is of it is new build. Its bus shelter library refers to itself as Benington bus stop, so maybe it has an identity crisis. The chapel was closed during the lock…
Walsworthblog 