17 Facts About Harpenden

Harpenden is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England.

Harpenden is a commuter town, with a direct rail connection through Central London and property prices well over triple the national average.

Harpenden village grew out of Westminster Abbey's gradual clearing of woodland for farming and settlement within its Wheathampstead manor, granted by Edward the Confessor in 1060.

Widespread but now little-known industry of Harpenden was straw-weaving, a trade mainly carried out by women in the nineteenth century.

Harpenden is the home of Rothamsted Manor and Rothamsted Research, a leading centre for agricultural research.

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However, Harpenden was not totally confident in its safety, as evidenced by the now decaying Bowers Parade air raid shelters, soon to be secured for the future.

Harpenden has a large number of its streets named after English literary figures on the east side of the town, including Byron Road, Cowper Road, Kipling Way, Milton Road, Shakespeare Road, Spenser Road, Shelley Court, Tennyson Road, Townsend Road, Masefield Road and Wordsworth Road.

Harpenden was anciently part of the parish of Wheathampstead, in the hundred of Dacorum.

The chapelry of Harpenden was treated as a separate civil parish from an early date, having its own church wardens and parish registers from the sixteenth century.

An order to create a separate parish of Harpenden was made in 1656, but does not appear to have been carried out.

Harpenden was eventually made a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1859.

Harpenden has a Charity run Community Bus service called the Harpenden Hopper, which is a hail and ride service operating in various parts of the town; it is currently running 3 days a week .

Harpenden has many shops commonly found in other English towns, with three central supermarkets, multiple female clothes shops, charity shops, banks, estate agents and chemists.

The central area of Harpenden is characterised by Church Green, Leyton Green and the High Street Greens, which give the town its provincial feel.

Harpenden Public Halls was a 410-seat live music and theatre venue in the town centre.

Harpenden is home to Musicale, a music school and music shop on the site of St George's School providing instrumental and vocal training to adults and children.

The Harpenden Gang Show is the world's longest continuously running Gang Show, with a performance every year since 1949.