West Herts Golf Club

Berkhamsted is a historic market town close to the western boundary of Hertfordshire, England. It is situated in the small Bulbourne valley in the Chiltern Hills, 26 miles northwest of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum, based at the much larger town of Hemel Hempstead. Berkhamsted and the adjoining village of Northchurch are surrounded by countryside, much of it classified as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.The high street is on a pre-Roman route known by its Saxon name Akeman Street. The earliest written reference to Berkhamsted was in 970. It was recorded as a burbium in the Domesday Book in 1086. The oldest known extant jettied timber-framed building in Great Britain, built 1277-97, survives as a shop on the town's high street. In the 13th and 14th century, the town was a wool trading town, with a thriving local market. In the 21st century, Berkhamsted has evolved into an affluent commuter town. The most notable event in the town's history occurred in December 1066. After William the Conqueror defeated King Harold's Anglo-Saxon army at the Battle of Hastings, the Anglo-Saxon leadership surrendered to the Norman encampment at Berkhamsted. The event was recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. From 1066 to 1495, Berkhamsted Castle was a favoured residence of royalty and notable historical figures including ~ Henry II, Edward, the Black Prince, Thomas Becket and Geoffrey Chaucer. After the castle was abandoned in 1495, the town went into decline, losing its borough status in the second half of the 17th century. Modern Berkhamsted began to expand following the construction of the canal and the railway in the 19th century. Colonel Daniel Axtell, captain of the Parliamentary Guard at the trial and execution of Charles I in 1649, was among those born in Berkhamsted. The town's literary connections include the 17th century hymnist and poet William Cowper, the 18th century writer Maria Edgeworth, and the 20th century novelist Graham Greene. The town is the location of Berkhamsted School, a co-educational boarding independent school, founded in 1541 by John Incent, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, Ashlyns School, a state school whose history began as the Foundling Hospital established in London by Thomas Coram in 1742. It is also the location of the Rex independent cinema, and the British Film Institute's BFI National Archive at King's Hill, one of the largest film and television archives in the world, which was endowed by J. Paul Getty, Jr.
Continue reading...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.