Berkhamsted, High Street c.1948

Photo ref: B407013

More about this scene

The new church, St Peter's, seems to have been deliberately placed in a prominent position close to the market place and the approach to the castle. Geoffrey Fitz Piers, Earl of Essex, holder of the castle at the time, was the founder of the church, one of the largest in the county. Its grandeur also reflects the flourishing wool trade in the town at this period. The south side of the High Street was higher and drier, and it was here that the wealthier properties of the medieval town were to be found. On the other side were the stalls, shops and shambles of the traders. It appears that the later medieval lay-out of the town was the result of a deliberate plan initiated by Geoffrey Fitz Piers, and that it was contemporaneous with the building of St Peter's Church and Castle Street. At about the same time he founded two hospitals, the Hospital of St John the Baptist and the Hospital of St John the Evangelist. It is likely that the second was at the eastern end of the town. Both were dissolved in the 1520s, and the revenues used as part of the endowment for Berkhamsted School.