25 Facts About Berkhamsted

Berkhamsted is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, 26 miles north-west of London.

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 .

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.

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.

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.

Berkhamsted was described in the Domesday Book as a burbium in the Tring Hundred.

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.

The arrival of Neville and her household at Berkhamsted had a significant social and financial impact on the town.

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.

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.

Georgian Berkhamsted barely extended beyond the medieval triangle and the High Street.

Battle of Berkhamsted Common played an important part in the preservation of common land nationally.

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.

Ownership of Berkhamsted Common is divided between the National Trust and Berkhamsted Golf Club.

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 .

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.

Berkhamsted is within the South West Hertfordshire, UK Parliament constituency.

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.

Berkhamsted is split into three local government Wards—East, West and Castle.

Berkhamsted was an ancient borough, but lost this status in the seventeenth century.

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.

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.

The residential home side at Berkhamsted closed following the Children Act 1948, when family-centred care replaced institutional care.

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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