Redbourn

It was along this street that the men of the town swarmed in 1381 towards St Albans. They demanded and received a charter protecting their right of pasture, fisheries and so on. After the death of Wat Tyler, the Peasants’ Revolt collapsed, and many of these concessions, but not all, were revoked. In ‘Hertfordshire Countryside’ for January 1970, W G S Crook writes: ‘I cannot recollect ever finding Redbourn High Street deserted.’ Frith’s photographer would have begged to differ.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

On 24 June 1827, William Cobbett wrote in his ‘Rural Rides’: ‘Set out at four this morning for Redbourn. The trees ... are very fine: oak, ashes and beeches; some of the finest of each sort. The hedges are full with shepherd’s rose, honeysuckles and all sorts of flowers, with the most beautiful of all flower gardens and shrubberies on your one hand and corn on the other. What can equal these fields in Hertfordshire?’ Maybe our view lacks the shrubberies, flowers and corn, but little else would have changed since Cobbett’s time.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

Considered to be the oldest house in the village, the Jolly Gardeners is now a private dwelling. In the distance on the right stands the parish church, which dates from Norman times. It boasts one of the finest carved rood screens in the county - it is mentioned in the church records of 1479.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

On the level ground to the south-west of the town stands the almost ploughed-out remains of an ancient double-ditched camp called The Aubreys. Close by stood a house called The Aubreys, later the Aubrey Park Hotel, a fine part mock-Tudor building graced, in this view, by an elegant Humber Pullman limousine.It was originally Foster’s Farm, and was owned by the Dunn family, the London hat makers. After its conversion, The Aubreys was used for a short time as a holiday centre for children from Bethnal Green.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

It is a few years after No R87001 (above), and the High Street is still almost deserted - just a couple of cars but no pedestrians, despite the new-fangled zebra crossing. As every school child knows, the Romans built long straight roads; Redbourn High Street is no exception, for it forms part of the Roman Watling Street. It was along this road that the body of King Edward I’s wife, Eleanor, was brought on its journey from Lincoln to London. In 1554, the sick and feeble Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I) was dragged from her bed at Ashridge to be brought to the Tower of London. She was so weak that her first overnight stop was at Redbourn. A hundred and seventy years ago, a Dr Stephens lived in the High Street. His invention of blue-black ink made him world famous.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".