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'Hertford' (standard pronunciations // and //; local pronunciation //) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is in the East Hertfordshire district of that county. It has a population today of about 24,180.^[1].
The name is Anglo Saxon and means the ford frequented by harts or stags.
The rivers Rib, Beane and Mimram join the River Lea at Hertford to flow south toward the Thames.
Employment in the town is centred on County Hall (Hertfordshire County Council), Wallfields (East Hertfordshire District Council) and McMullens Brewery, one of a dwindling number of independent brewers in the UK.

Contents

The town

Historical buildings

Transport

Rail

Road

Bus and Coach

Trivia

Nearby places

Town twinning

References

External links

The town

The town retains very much a country-town feel, despite lying only 20 miles north of London. This is aided by a lack of large chain stores in the town, which is too small to support them, and by its proximity to larger towns such as Harlow, Bishop's Stortford and Stevenage where modern development has been focused.
In terms of supermarkets there is a Tesco, Waitrose and a Marks and Spencer Simply Food in the town as well as several Co-Ops on the town's outskirts. Sainsbury's have submitted designs for store in the town which will be on the old McMullens Brewery site. Iceland has said it is looking for a new site in Hertford, having lost its previous location to M&S. Other national shops include Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy, WH Smith, Clintons, Woolworths, Thorntons and a Caffe Nero Coffee house. These retailers aside, there are not all the usual chain shops found in most high streets and this makes Hertford stand out from other "clone towns"; Hertford is widely thought to have kept its uniqueness unlike many British towns. The McDonald's in the town centre closed in September 2006 following numerous complaints regarding slow service published in the local media, though the fast food retailer still has another restaurant just outside the town, on the A10/A414 junction in Rush Green. There are many pubs and the usual banks and building societies.
The town is beset by traffic despite the existence of the 1960s bypass called Gascoyne Way. The town centre is still a labyrinth of medieval streets with many timber-framed buildings hidden under later frontages, particularly in St Andrew Street.
The shared valley of the Lea and the Beane is called Hartham Common and this provides a large attractive park to one side of the town centre running towards Ware and lying below the ridge upon which Bengeo is situated.
There are numerous schools in Hertford: these include the Richard Hale School, Simon Balle School, and Sele School at secondary level, with primaries of Millmead Community School, Hollybush Primary School, Bengeo County Primary School, Morgans JMI, Abel Smith School and St Andrew's School.

Historical buildings

The Council of Hertford met in 673 at the instigation of Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus, as the first Synod of the whole Church in England, on the site which is now St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. It was at this meeting that the Roman and Celtic churches came to an agreement on the date to celebrate Easter.
The town has the remains of a castle, principally a motte. The castle's gatehouse, the central part of which dates to a rebuild by Edward IV in 1463, is the home to Hertford Town Council. There are several churches in the town, ''All Saints' and ''St Andrew's'', are late and mid 19th century respectively. In the northern suburb of Bengeo lies ''St Leonard's'', a two-celled Norman church of considerable architectural interest.
Hertford contains the oldest purpose-built Quaker Meeting House in the world, in use since 1670.
The Parliament of England temporarily moved to Hertford during the Great Plague of London. This is why the main square in the town, Parliament Square, is so named.
Conspiracy theories link Hertford to the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail.
The Motte: From the original Motte and Bailey castle in Hertford, can be found just behind Castle Hall, a short distance from the modern castle.

Transport

Rail

Hertford serves as a commuter town for London, and has two stations :

★ Hertford East provides a half hourly service to London Liverpool Street (taking 52 minutes), via Tottenham Hale and operated by 'one'.

★ Hertford North (on the Hertford Loop Line) has a service every 20 minutes off-peak to London Moorgate station (taking 50 minutes), via Finsbury Park (change for King's Cross) and hourly northwards to Stevenage (for onward connections via the East Coast Main Line) and Letchworth (change for Cambridge), services operated by First Capital Connect.

Road

The A414 trunk road now bypasses the town to the south and runs east to Harlow, the M11 and Chelmsford and runs west to Hatfield, the A1, St. Albans and the M1.
Hertford also lies just west of the A10 which links it south to London and the M25 and north to Royston and Cambridge.

Bus and Coach

★ The town's bus services are run by a number of independent commercial companies, most running from the bus station on Bircherley Green, destinations include Bishop's Stortford, Royston, Stevenage and Waltham Cross.

★ The town also lies on the 724 coach route (operated by Arriva the Shires) which provides an hourly service from Harlow through the town and on to Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City, St. Albans, Watford and Heathrow.

★ Although bypassed by most National Express routes Hertford (Mill Road) is served by the 767 service which operates from Nottingham to Stansted Airport via Leicester and Luton Airport.
For all bus and coach timetables see here.

Trivia

★ The town of Meryton in the Jane Austen novel ''Pride and Prejudice'' is thought to have been based on Hertford.

★ The band Deep Purple formed in Hertford in 1968.

★ Dani Filth, singer of Cradle of Filth was born in Hertford, but grew up in Ipswich

★ Harry Potter film star Rupert Grint comes from the nearby village Watton at Stone. He attended Richard Hale School before leaving, after his GCSE exams in 2004, to concentrate on the Harry Potter films.

★ Successful BBC Soap ''Eastenders'' has filmed in the town twice, firstly for character Dan Sullivan's trial for shooting Phil Mitchell, and again for Sharon and Dennis' marriage. Letitia Dean, who played the character of Sharon, was born in a village about 5 miles to the south of Hertford called Wildhill (Potters Bar). ''Eastenders'' is filmed about 20 miles from Hertford in Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Herts.

Nearby places

★ Bishop's Stortford

★ Cheshunt

★ Hoddesdon

★ Potters Bar

★ Stevenage

★ Ware

★ Welwyn Garden City

Town twinning

★ Évron, France

★ Hartford, Connecticut

★ Wildeshausen, Germany

References

1. Office for National Statistics, 2001 Census, Key Statistics for HCC settlements. Usual resident population (numbers)

External links

★ Hertford Town Council

★ Hertfordshire County Council

★ Hertford events guide

★ Hertford, home of the Holy Grail; ''The Guardian'' January 4, 2005.

★ Discover Hertford

★ http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=0620