Berkhamsted is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, 26 miles north-west of London.
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Berkhamsted is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, 26 miles north-west of London.
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Berkhamsted, along with the adjoining village of Northchurch, is encircled by countryside, much of it in the Chiltern Hills which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty .
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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.
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The Berkhamsted area appears to have been divided into two or three farming estates, each including one or more masonry villa buildings, with tiled roofs and underfloor heating.
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At Berkhamsted, he received the surrender of Edgar the Ætheling, Archbishop Ealdred, Earl Edwin, Earl Morcar and the leaders of London.
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Some historians have argued that the number of 52 burgesses in Berkhamsted was a clerical error, as it is a large number for a small town.
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Berkhamsted was described in the Domesday Book as a burbium in the Tring Hundred.
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Marjorie Chibnall argued that Robert, Count of Mortain intended Berkhamsted to be both a commercial and a defensive centre; while John Hatcher and Edward Miller believed that the 52 burgesses were involved in trade, but it is unknown if the burgesses existed before the conquest.
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The arrival of Neville and her household at Berkhamsted had a significant social and financial impact on the town.
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Trades within medieval Berkhamsted were extensive: early in the 13th century the town had a merchant, two painters, a goldsmith, a forester, two farriers, two tailors, a brewer of mead, a blacksmith, carpenters, wood turners, tool makers, a manufacturer of roofing tiles and wine producers.
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Berkhamsted participated as a lieutenant colonel in Pride's Purge of the Long Parliament, arguably the only military coup d'etat in English history, and commanded the Parliamentary Guard at the trial of King Charles I at Westminster Hall in 1649.
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Georgian Berkhamsted barely extended beyond the medieval triangle and the High Street.
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Battle of Berkhamsted Common played an important part in the preservation of common land nationally.
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Berkhamsted is situated 26 miles northwest of London within the Chiltern Hills, part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England, believed to have formed between 84 and 100 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period when the area was a chalk-depositing marine environment.
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Ownership of Berkhamsted Common is divided between the National Trust and Berkhamsted Golf Club.
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Layout of Berkhamsted's centre is typical of a medieval market settlement: the linear High Street forms the spine of the town, from which extend medieval burgage plots .
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Today, Berkhamsted is an affluent, "pleasant town tucked in a wooded fold in the Chiltern Hills"; with a large section of the settlement protected as a conservation area.
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Berkhamsted is within the South West Hertfordshire, UK Parliament constituency.
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Berkhamsted has a town council, the first tier of local government that represents the local people to two higher tiers of local government, Dacorum Borough Council and Hertfordshire County Council.
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Berkhamsted is split into three local government Wards—East, West and Castle.
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Berkhamsted was an ancient borough, but lost this status in the seventeenth century.
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In 1835 Berkhamsted was made the centre of a poor law union which covered the town and the surrounding parts of western Hertfordshire, as well as parts of Buckinghamshire.
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Berkhamsted campaigned for a hospital to accommodate them and was successfully granted a royal charter "for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Children" in 1739.
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The residential home side at Berkhamsted closed following the Children Act 1948, when family-centred care replaced institutional care.
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The majority of Berkhamsted's eighty-five listed or scheduled historical sites are on in the high street and the medieval core of the town .
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