Hertfordshire Part 17

_West Hyde_, in the extreme S.W. of the county, near the river Colne, has a modern cruciform church, Italian in style.

WESTMILL, a church and picturesque cl.u.s.ter of cottages in a hollow a little W. from the Buntingford Road, is 1 mile S. from that town. The river Rib runs between the church and the station (G.E.R.). The manor is ancient; it was given by William I. to Robert de Olgi. Nathanial Salmon, author of a _History of Hertfordshire_ published in 1728, was once curate here.

The church very probably dates from the end of the thirteenth century, and is an E.E. flint structure. There are some old slabs in the chancel to the b.e.l.l.e.n.den family, and one on the nave floor bearing an inscription to one Thomas de Leukenor (?).

_Westmill Green_ is a hamlet 1 mile S.W. from Westmill Station, G.E.R.

WESTON, a large village 3 miles S.E. from Baldock, has an interesting, restored church, dating from about 1200. It has a N. transept, in which are two good Norman windows; a piscina, E.E., is in the nave. The ma.s.sive embattled tower, which carries an octagonal, N.E. turret, was rebuilt in 1867. In the churchyard may be seen two small stones, about four yards apart, which, according to local tradition, mark the grave of the Weston giant. The church was once a property of the Knights Templars. There is what seems a second village just where a narrow footpath leads from the Lufen Hall Road to the church, which stands mile E. from the long main street. Many folk may still be noticed plaiting in the neighbourhood.

_Weston Dane End_ (1 mile S. from the above village) is a hamlet on the road to Walkern.

_Westwick Row_ (2 miles S.E. from Hemel Hempstead) is a hamlet near Leverstock Green, in a charming neighbourhood.

WHEATHAMPSTEAD lies in a hollow, in the valley of the Lea. Cyclists approaching the village from St. Albans by way of Sandridge and No Man's Land must beware of the steep descent from the Old Red Cow to the Swan Inn. The place undoubtedly owes its name to the fine wheat grown in the neighbourhood; it is very picturesque, particularly around the church and vicarage, and by the waterside towards _Brocket Hall_.

The cruciform church, W. from the centre of the village, is E.E. and Dec. with a few Perp. features. A doorway in the _Brocket Chapel_ is supposed to be Saxon, but I cannot say whether the supposition is correct; the chapel also contains an altar-tomb with effigies of Sir John Brocket and his wife, Margaret, bearing date 1543, and a piscina in the S. wall. A bra.s.s of much interest is that to Hugh Bostock and his wife, Margaret (_circa_ 1450), showing their figures in robes. These persons were the parents of John de Wheathampsted. (See St. Albans.) An old marble tablet is to John Heyworth (d. 1558) and his wife Joan. Note also the monumental effigies in N. transept to Sir John Garrard, Bart.

(d. 1637), and his wife Elizabeth (d. 1632). The _reredos_ is very fine.

Forty years ago the village was truly rural, but the rebuilding of the old mill between the church and station (G.N.R. branch from Hatfield to Dunstable) and the erection of several modern shops in the main street has altered its appearance. _Wheathampstead House_, close to the station, is the seat of Earl Cavan; _Lamer Park_, a little N., slopes pleasantly towards the fine home of A. G. B. Cherry-Garrard, Esq.

Mention must be made of the curious bronze vessel of the Anglo-Saxon period, resembling a teapot, found in the neighbourhood some years ago.

It is figured and described in the recently published _Victoria History of Hertfordshire_.

_Wheathampstead Cross_ (1 mile S.E. from Harpenden Station, M.R.) is 2 miles S.W. from the above village. It contains nothing but a few cottages.

_Whempstead_, a hamlet in the centre of the county, is not easily reached, being about 5 miles E. from Knebworth Station, G.N.R., and rather farther N.W. from Ware. The so-called _Whempstead Chapel_, recently demolished, was a small cottage, but it doubtless stood near the site of an old chapel "founded and endowed about the beginning of the thirteenth century by the family of Aguillon".

_White Barns_, near the Ess.e.x border, is a hamlet mile N. from Furneaux Pelham (_q.v._).

_Whitwell_ (4 miles S.W. from Stevenage) is strictly a hamlet, but is a place of some size, scattered along the S. bank of the river Maran. The nearest parish church is at St. Paul's Walden (_q.v._), but there is a modern Baptist chapel near the centre of the main street, and a small church on the Bendish Road, formerly owned by the Countess of Huntingdon's Connection; it is now partially disused. The mill at the E.

end of the village, near the old tan-yard, was burnt down many years ago, but has since been rebuilt.

_Widbury_ is 1 mile E. from Ware.

WIDFORD, so interesting in the eyes of all lovers of Charles Lamb, is a small village on the river Ash, with a station (G.E.R.) a few minutes W.

from the church. Visitors, however, must remember that much in the neighbourhood has changed since Lamb's day. He himself recorded the demolition of the old house "Blakesware" or, as he wrote it, "Blakesmoor,"[o] which he knew so well as a child; the church spire, mentioned in his verses "The Grandame," was rebuilt many years back; the cottage at _Blenheim_ close by, immortalised in _Rosamund Gray_, was long ago rebuilt.

The church is Dec. and Perp.; there are sedilia in the chancel, the roof of which was finely painted by Miss Gosselin forty years ago, and there is a piscina in the nave. The circular stone staircase that formerly led to the old rood-loft was built up during restoration. The present E.

window is to the memory of John Eliot--the missionary to the Indians--born at n.a.z.ing early in the seventeenth century. There are very few memorials; one might almost repeat the words written of the church two centuries ago, "In this church are no gravestones". The manor is very ancient and was held in the reign of William I. by the Bishop of London.

_Wigginton_ lies on very high ground, commanding splendid views. The village is about 1 mile S.W. from Tring Station, L.&N.W.R.; the church, near the parting of the roads at its S.E. extremity, is a small flint structure, E.E. in style, with a modern N. aisle. It has no tower.

_Champneys_, near Wigginton Common (1 mile S.), is a prettily situated mansion, rebuilt in 1874. It was formerly the residence of the Valpy family.

_Wilbury Hill_, between Ickleford and Baldock, is crossed by the Roman Icknield Way. The _vallum_, through which the Way pa.s.ses, is thought to mark the site of a Roman camp; Stukeley's suggestion that it was probably the site of a British _oppidum_ is questioned by Salmon (_History of Hertfordshire_, 1728). Roman coins have been found in some abundance in the neighbourhood, notably a silver _Faustina_.

_Wild Hill_ is between Hatfield and Bedwell Parks.

_Willian_, formerly Wylie (2 miles N.E. from Hitchin Station, G.N.R.), is very ancient, mention of it as a property dating from the times of the Mercian kings. The village lies 1 mile W. from the Great North Road.

The church is thought to date from the Conquest, but only an arch in the chancel is Norman. Note (1) the monument to "Edvardus Lacon" (d. 1625), and Joanna his wife (d. 1624); (2) small bra.s.s to Richard Goldon, a former vicar (d. 1446--? 1417). A tiny graveyard surrounds the church.

_Roxley Court_ ( mile S.) is the property of Colonel Mortimer Hanc.o.c.k.

_Wilstone_, near the Aylesbury Ca.n.a.l, lies in a hollow 2 miles S.E. from Marston Gate Station, L.&N.W.R. It has a modern church, E.E. in style, consisting of nave only.

_Windridge_, a ward of St. Stephen's parish, is 1 mile S.W. from the L.&N.W.R. Station at the foot of Holywell Hill, St. Albans.

_Winter Green_ is on the N.W. confines of Knebworth Park, about 1 mile from the church and 2 miles from the station (G.N.R.). The neighbourhood is on high ground.

_Woodend_ (3 miles S.W. from Westmill Station, G.E.R.) has a numerous population, but is, I believe, a hamlet in Ardeley parish. The modern Chapel of St. Alban the Martyr is built largely of small stones, and has a S. porch. _Walkern Park_ is mile S.W.

_Woodhall_ (1 mile N.N.E. from Hatfield) is a scattered hamlet between Stanborough and Hatfield Hyde. Two farms and several cottages bear the name. Woodhall Woods are a little farther N.

_Woodhill_ (about 3 miles S.E. from Hatfield) is prettily situated, with _Brookmans_, _Hatfield_ and _Bedwell_ Parks all within a short walk. St. Mark's Chapel-of-Ease was rebuilt in 1880, although originally erected only in 1852 by the then Marquess of Salisbury.

_Woodside_ is the name of at least three small places, (1) in the neighbourhood of Hatfield, where Upper and Lower Woodside are at the S.E. side of the park; (2) a ward in the parish of Cheshunt; (3) in the parish of Leavesden.

_Woollen's Brook_, on the Hoddesdon-Hertford road, has a tiny Mission Church. It is a small hamlet, a little S. from Haileybury College.

_Woolmer Green_ lies on the Great North Road, 1 mile S.E. from Knebworth Station, G.N.R. The roads from Welwyn, Stevenage and Bramfield meet at the S. end of the street. The hamlet is considerable.

WORMLEY (1 mile S.W. from Broxbourne Station, G.E.R.) is on the New River. The church is at _Wormley Bury_, mile W. from the village; it is very ancient, but was restored twenty years ago. Note (1) Norman font; (2) small Norman doorway on N. side; (3) "The Last Supper," by Giacomo Palma, a fine picture over the communion table; (4) rebuilt chancel arch; (5) Perp. windows in nave; (6) tablet on S. wall to Gough the antiquary (d. at Enfield, 1809). Gough completed a translation of a French history of the Bible in his thirteenth year, which was printed for private circulation; he subsequently translated Fleury's work on Israelitish customs and edited Camden's _Britannia_. He bequeathed many MSS. to Oxford University.

The church contains other modern monuments, and there are bra.s.ses (1) to John Cleve, Rector (d. 1404); (2) to Edward Howton (d. 1479), his wife and family; (3) to John c.o.k, his wife and eleven sons; date uncertain, but presumably fifteenth century. c.o.k or c.o.c.k was the name of a very old family in the neighbourhood, especially at Broxbourne.

WYDDIAL (1 mile N.E. from Buntingford) was called _Widihale_ in _Domesday Book_, and was given by William I. to Hardwin de Scalers. The walk from Buntingford up the hill to the ruined church at Layston (_q.v._), and thence to this village, leads through some of the quietest spots in the county. The church is E.E., and stands on high ground a few yards N. from the road and about 1 mile W. from the river Quin. It was restored sixty years ago; but still retains two seventeenth-century stained-gla.s.s windows in the aisle, and two Jacobean screens. The little N. chapel of brick was built by one George Canon in 1632. The bra.s.ses include (1) to George Gyll, Lord of the Manor (d. 1546); (2) to Dame Margaret (Plumbe), a daughter of Sir Thomas Neville, Kt., and wife to Sir Robert Southwell, Master of the Rolls (d. 1575). There are many memorials to the Goulston family, several of whom were Lords of the Manor; that to Sir Richard Goulston (d. 1686) bears a long inscription in Latin. _Wyddial Hall_, in a small park close to the church, was the property of the Goulstons.

WYMONDLEY, GREAT or MUCH, is nearly 2 miles S.E. from Hitchin Station, G.N.R. The church dates from early in the twelfth century, but has been much restored. The font, the chancel arch, and three windows in the chancel are said to be Norman; the tower is Perp. The memorials are unimportant.

The neighbourhood is interesting. The Lords of the Manor of Wymondley Magna were formerly, as the newspapers have recently reminded us, Cup-bearers to the King at his Coronation. Near the church are some traces of an ancient fortification; a little S., and opposite a row of quaint cottages with heavily thatched roofs, stands _Delamere House_, once the property of Cardinal Wolsey, who is said to have been visited here by Henry VIII. At the _Manor Farm_, Edward VI.--according to tradition--once slept; the Green Man, close by, on the W. side of the main street, has been kept by successive generations of one family for 300 years. Forty years ago several Roman urns were discovered in the neighbourhood, and the well-preserved pavement of a Roman villa was unearthed, subsequently, at Purwell Mill, between the village and Hitchin. Prehistoric implements have also been found.

WYMONDLEY, LITTLE, formerly Wymondley Parva, is 1 mile S. from the above. The E. end of the street is crossed by the G.N.R. near the tiny churchyard. The church is Perp.; and was largely rebuilt in 1875; two earlier structures are thought to have occupied the site. It contains several inscriptions, and some monuments to the Needham family (seventeenth century). A Priory of Augustinian Canons, dedicated to St.

Mary, was founded here by Richard Argenton, in the reign of Henry III.; it was suppressed at the Dissolution. When, in 1891, the _Old Priory_ farm-house was being altered, some portions of two E.E. arches were disclosed, and are thought to show where the cloister of the _Priory_ stood. There is another E.E. arch in the house.

YARDLEY. (See Ardeley.)

_Youngsbury._ (See High Cross.)