Hertfordshire Part 11

LILLEY, a village on the Bedfordshire border, is 4 miles N.E. from Luton (Beds). It was formerly called Lindley, and Lilly Hoo, and the old manor, like so many others, was given to a Norman (Goisfride de Bech) for services rendered at Hastings. The church is of ancient foundation, but was rebuilt, in E. Dec. style, in 1870-71. Several old memorials are still preserved, notably those to the Docwra family, early seventeenth century. _Putteridge Bury_ (1 mile S.) is in the centre of a park of 450 acres; on or near the site of the house built by Thomas Docwra, J.P. and High Sheriff of Herts, who died there in 1602. The present mansion dates from the beginning of last century.

_Little Heath_ is on the Middles.e.x border, 1 mile N.E. from Potter's Bar Station. The Dec. church, just off the Barnet-Hatfield road, is new.

LONDON COLNEY, a village on the main road from Barnet to St. Albans, is on the river Colne. The nearest station is that of the G.N.R. at St.

Albans, 2 miles N.W. The church, built by the third Earl of Hardwicke in 1825, is a plain brick structure of Gothic character. Half a mile E.

is _t.i.ttenhanger Park_, a large brick mansion with tiled roof and dormer windows, built by Sir Henry Blount in 1654. The manor had belonged to the Abbots of St. Albans, who had a residence on the same spot, commenced during the abbacy of John de la Moote and completed during that of John Wheathampsted. Henry VIII. and Catherine of Arragon stayed here during the "sweatinge sicknesse" (1528).

_Long Lane_ is a hamlet near the river Chess, 1 mile S.W. from Rickmansworth.

_Long Marston_, 1 mile N. from the Aylesbury Ca.n.a.l, is a village and ecclesiastical parish in the extreme W. of the county. The nearest station is Marston Gate, 1 mile N. The old church, a small Dec.

structure, was pulled down twenty years ago with the exception of the tower, which stands in the disused graveyard. The new building, adjoining the present burial ground, is Gothic, and contains some portions of the old structure, and its two piscinae.

_Lower Green._ (See Tewin.)

_Ludwick Hyde_ is in the parish of Hatfield, 3 miles N.E. from that town.

_Luffenhall_, a little hamlet, is in the hollow between Weston and Cottered, 5 miles W. from Buntingford Station. The district is one of winding lanes and field footpaths so characteristic of the county.

_Lye End_, 2 miles S. from Sandon Church, is a hamlet lying W. from the Buntingford-Royston road.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD COTTAGES NEAR MACKERY END]

MACKERY END, 1 mile N.W. from Wheathampstead Station, G.N.R., is close to Batford and Pickford mills on the river Lea. Charles and Mary Lamb had talked about the place "all their lives" and the essay by the former ent.i.tled "Mackery End in Hertfordshire" need only be named here. The place, as Lamb mentions, was also called Mackarel End. John Wheathampsted, who became thirty-third Abbot of St. Albans in 1420, was the son of Hugh Bostok or Bostock of the village from which he took his name; his mother was the daughter of Thomas Makery, "Lord of Makeyrend".

_Mangrove_ is a hamlet, partly in Offley and partly in Lilley parishes; Mangrove Green is on the S. outskirts of Putteridge Bury Park, on the Bedfordshire border. The nearest station to the latter is Luton (Beds).

_Maple Cross_, a hamlet 2 miles S.W. from Rickmansworth, is near the river Chess. It lies between Mill End and West Hyde, on the road to Uxbridge.

MARAN, or MIMRAM, river. (See Introduction.)

_Marford_, _Old_ and _New_, are hamlets on the river Lea. The latter adjoins the E. side of Wheathampstead village; the former lies mile farther E.; the cress-beds, the hand-bridge over the river, and some dilapidated cottages render it a picturesque spot. On the opposite side of the road from Hatfield to Wheathampstead lies The Devil's d.y.k.e, a long, narrow gorge most beautifully wooded. It is a favourite haunt of the nightingale, as the writer can testify.

MARKET or MARKYATE STREET (3 miles S.W. from Luton, Beds) is a village on the high road from St. Albans to Dunstable. The church, a little N.

from the village, in Cell Park, is small and uninteresting, with a chancel added in 1892. The mansion called Markyate Cell, a little farther N., is old, and occupies the site of the old Benedictine nunnery built by Geoffrey de Gorham, sixteenth Abbot of St. Albans, at the instigation of Roger the Monk, the church of which was consecrated in 1145. Cowper the poet was at school in the village, at the house of Dr.

Pitman.

MARLOWES is a suburb of Hemel Hempstead (_q.v._).

_Marsh Moor_ lies between Hatfield Park and Mimms Park. It is a hamlet in the parish of North Mimms, 2 miles S. from Hatfield.

_Marston Gate_ is little more than the station (L.&N.W.R.) for Long Marston, 1 mile S. It is nearly the extreme W. point of the county.

_Mayden Croft_, or Maiden Croft, is near the source of the river Hiz, with the hamlet of Gosmore adjoining (S.E.). Some remains of a moat may be traced, which are supposed to mark the site of a nunnery. The manor is ancient; in the time of Edward III. it belonged to Sir Robert Nevill, Kt.

MEESDON (6 miles N.E. from Buntingford) has a very ancient flint church, probably erected in the thirteenth century, but restored in 1877. The S. porch is Jacobean. The pavement of the Sacrarium is a mosaic of many coloured, vitrified tiles; it is almost unique in the county and is undoubtedly of great age. There is also in the chancel a curious monument and inscription to Robert Young, gent. (d. 1626). Most of the population are to be found at Meesdon Green, mile W. from the church.

On _Metley Hill_, between the Icknield Way and the village of Wallington, may be seen Bush Barrow, one of the many ancient mounds in the county concerning which so little is known.

_Micklefield Green_ ( mile E. from Sarratt Church) is near the river Chess and the Bucks border. The nearest station is Chorley Wood (Met.

R.) 2 miles S.W. The district is varied and undulating.

MILL END (1 mile S.W. from Rickmansworth) is on the Middles.e.x border, close to the river Colne. The church (modern) is late Dec. in style, and has several good stained windows. The village and parish were only formed in 1875. There is also a hamlet of this name 1 mile S.W. from Buckland, on the Royston road.

_Mill Green_, at the N. end of Hatfield Park, is a pretty hamlet on the Lea, near the old paper mill.

MIMMS, NORTH (3 miles N.W. from Potter's Bar Station, G.N.R.), is in one of the prettiest districts in the county, although so close to Middles.e.x. The church and parsonage are in the park, mile from the village. Dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, the church is Dec., unusually pure in style. It is said to have been built by Sir Hugh de Magneville (_temp._ Stephen); I should think it more probable that Geoffrey de Magneville, then Lord of the Manor, was the real founder, as stated by Chauncy. However this may be, the structure is now almost wholly of later date. The monuments and bra.s.ses are numerous and very interesting; several of the latter, now in the chancel, were moved from their original positions on the floor during the restoration sixty years ago.

Among them we may note (1) large black marble monument in chancel surmounted by a figure of justice, to John Lord Somers, Baron of Evesham (d. 1716); (2) altar tomb in N. aisle, with Elizabethan effigy, to a Derbyshire family named Beresford; the inscription is only in part decipherable; (3) mutilated bra.s.s to Sir Robert Knolles (d. 14--), and to Elizabeth his wife (d. 1458); (4) bra.s.s to Sir Henry Covert (d.

1488); (5) fine old bra.s.s to Richard Boteler and Martha (Olyff) his wife (_circa_ 1560); (6) bra.s.s, probably of Flemish workmanship, thought to be a memorial to William Kesteven, vicar (d. 1361). This effigy is closely described in Murray. "It is apparently Flemish, and resembles in style that of Abbot de la Mare at St. Albans. He is vested in a chasuble and stole, has a chalice on his breast, and over him is a rich canopy, with, on the dexter side, St. Peter, and underneath SS. John the Evangelist and Bartholomew, and in corresponding places on the sinister SS. Paul, James the Great, and Andrew, with their respective emblems.

Above is the Almighty holding the soul of the deceased; at the sides are two angels swinging censers." Separated from the chancel by an oaken screen is the chantry-chapel of St. Catherine, dating from early fourteenth century.

_North Mimms Park_ surrounds the fine Jacobean manor house of red brick, recently in part restored, but originally built about 1600 by Sir Ralph Coningsby; it is very extensive and can show some good carving, and a chimney-piece dating from sixteenth century. E. from this park is _Potterels_, a modern house standing in another but smaller park, and E.

again from Potterels is the more famous _Brookman's Park_, where, in 1682, Andrew Fountaine erected the mansion soon afterwards purchased by the great Lord Somers who died here in 1716. The house was completely burnt down thirty years ago and has only in part been rebuilt. The further stretch of park adjoining Brookman's on the S. is _Gubbins_, or more correctly _Gobions_, where formerly stood the old manor house in which Sir Thomas More lived awhile with his family. The walks in each of these parks are very fine, and most beautifully wooded; they command distant views in many directions, and, in the autumn, are a perfect study in colour. No London cyclist should fail to visit this picturesque and interesting neighbourhood.

MIMMS, SOUTH, recently included in the administrative county of Herts, has a restored, E. Perp. church, with fine ma.s.sive W. tower. The Frowyk chantry, at E. end of N. aisle, contains a very ancient tomb with rec.u.mbent effigy of a knight in armour, under a richly designed canopy.

The knight was a Frowyk, and there are also some mutilated bra.s.ses to this family. The village is prettily situated on rising ground, 1 mile W. from Potter's Bar Station, G.N.R. (Middles.e.x).

_Moneybury Hill_ is on the Bucks border, close to the Bridgewater Column, 2 miles S.W. from Tring Station.

_Moor Green_ (3 miles W. from Buntingford Station, G.E.R.) is a hamlet in Ardeley parish.

_Morrell Green_ is a hamlet 2 miles E. from Barkway on the Ess.e.x border.

The nearest station is Buntingford, nearly 6 miles S.E.

_Mortgrove_, on the Beds border, is little more than a modern house, 1 mile S. from Hexton.

_Munches Green_ lies in the centre of that quiet district of villages and hamlets which stretches between the G.N.R. and G.E.R. It is a hamlet a little S.E. from _Ardeley Bury_ and nearly 4 miles W. from Westmill Station, G.E.R.

MUNDEN, GREAT, formerly Mundon Furnival, from Gerrard de Furnival, who was Lord of the Manor in the time of Richard I., is a village 2 miles W.

from Braughing Station, G.E.R. There is a Norman doorway on the N. side of the church, and a small Perp. reredos which was discovered during restoration in 1865. There is a bra.s.s in the chancel to John Lightfoot, Canon of Ely (d. 1675). The hamlet of Nasty, a little N.E. from the church, now takes Munden Furnival as its alternative name, but the older historians give that t.i.tle to the district around the parish church.

MUNDEN, LITTLE, or Munden Frewell, is 2 miles S.W. from the above, and 4 miles W. from Standon Station, G.E.R. The church, conspicuously placed on the hill, dates from the thirteenth century; it was restored in 1866-68. It is a structure of many parts, consisting of nave of three bays, chancel, N. chapel, N. aisle, N. and S. porches, and W. tower.

Note the two altar tombs beneath the chancel arcade, at the S. side of the chapel, each supporting the stone effigies of a male and female, presumably man and wife. They bear no inscriptions, but from the arms and shields figured on one of them it is conjectured to be the tomb of Sir John Thornbury, Kt., and his lady; whilst the other is probably that of his son Philip Thornbury and his wife: the former dates from about 1340-50. Early in the fourteenth century the manor belonged to a Knight named Frewell or de Freville, hence the old adjunct of the village.

_Rowney Abbey_, now a modern mansion, takes its name from Rowenea Priory, founded by Conan, Duke of Brittany, about 1164, and occupied for several generations by a Benedictine prioress and nuns. At Munden Street, or Dane End, mile S. from Little Munden, were formerly two or three large tumuli, long since levelled.

_Nash Mills_, on the river Gade, is a hamlet in the parish of Apsley End, 2 miles S. from Hemel Hempstead. The House was the seat of Sir John Evans, K.C.B., F.R.S., etc., the great archaeologist, who had a rich collection of coins, prehistoric flints, implements, etc., some of which were discovered in the neighbourhood.

_Nettleden_ was formerly in Bucks, but was transferred to Herts a few years ago. The village is beautifully situated at the foot of a wooded hill, at the meeting of the roads from Great Gaddesden and Little Gaddesden. The small parish church is a Perp. structure of stone, with a N. porch; it was partly rebuilt by the last Duke of Bridgewater, and was restored in 1887. Note the carved oak pulpit, which, like that in Little Gaddesden Church, was the gift of Lady Marian Alford (d. 1888). Sir John Cotton, Vice-Chamberlain to Edward VI., was buried here. The nearest station is Berkhampstead, L.&N.W.R., 2 miles S.W.

_New Mill_ is 1 mile N. from Tring, between the hamlets of Little Tring and Tring Grove. The famous reservoirs, often the resting-place of rare water-fowl, are within a short walk.

_Newgate Street_, a small hamlet in Hatfield parish, is, however, 6 miles S.E. from that town. It is in a prettily wooded district, close to _Ponsbourne Park_.

NEWNHAM (2 miles N. from Baldock) is a village lying on high ground, with an E.E. battlemented church on a little knoll above a brook. It consists of chancel, nave of four bays with clerestory, S. aisle and porch, and W. tower. The interior can show little of interest, but there are bra.s.ses, (1) on chancel floor, to Sir William Dyer, Bart. (d.

1680); (2) to a family, the man in civic costume (_circa_ 1490); (3) to Joan, wife of James Dowman (d. 1607), and her eight children.

_Newsell_, a hamlet 1 mile N. from Barkway, lies a little W. from the Cambridge Road. The nearest station is Royston, G.N.R., 3 miles N.W.

Newsell Park is a modern mansion S. from the hamlet.