Hertfordshire Through The Ages

Historical highlights from the region

1066

After the Norman Invasion, Edgar the Ætheling surrenders to William the Conqueror at Berkhamsted.

1213

The first draft of the Magna Carta is written at St Albans Abbey.

1471

The Battle of Barnet is fought in Monken Hadley. Edward IV’s Yorkist troops kill ‘Kingmaker’ Richard Neville.

1494

The first paper mill in England, owned by John Tate, opens in Hertford.

1785

‘Peter the

Wild Boy’, discovered living wild in the woods near Hamelin in Germany

60 years before, is buried in Berkhamsted.

1809

John Dickinson patents a paper-making machine. He uses the new design at Apsley Mills in Hemel Hempstead.

1903

The Garden City Company is formed, which leads to the creation of Letchworth ( pictured) and Welwyn Garden City.

1904

Novelist Graham Greene is born in St John’s House, a boarding house at Berkhamsted School where his father is a housemaster. One of his most famous books is Brighton Rock (1938).

1926

The Shredded Wheat factory opens in Welwyn Garden City with about 100 workers, most of them female.