Harpenden


Harpenden is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The population of the built-up area was 30,674 in the 2021 census, while the population of the civil parish was 31,128. Harpenden is a commuter town, with a direct rail connection to Central London.

History

There is evidence of pre-Roman Belgic farmers in the area. In 1867, several items were found, including a bronze escutcheon, rams-head shaped mounts, and a bronze bowl.
There are Roman remains in the land around Harpenden, such as the site of a mausoleum in the park at Rothamsted. A tumulus near the river Lea was opened in the 1820s, and it contained a stone sarcophagus of Romano-Celtic origin. Five objects dating from around 150 AD were inside, including a glass jug with a Mediterranean stamp and samian ware dishes used for libations.
The name Harpenden probably derives from the Old English hearpedenu, meaning 'harp valley'. Another theory suggests that the name perhaps derives from herepæðdenu meaning 'military road valley'. This theory is considered because Harpenden lies on the ancient St Albans - Luton road.
Up to the 13th century, the area of the parish consisted of woodland with small hamlets and single farmsteads around cleared areas called "End" or "Green"; today, there are 19 Ends and 18 Greens in the areas of Harpenden and Wheathampstead parishes.
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. The first reference to a parish church was in 1221 so it is inferred that the village grew up around then. The church of St Nicholas is the oldest church in the town, originally built as a Chapel of ease in 1217.
Just beyond the southern edge of the town lies Nomansland Common upon which part of the Second Battle of St Albans was fought during the Wars of the Roses. Nomansland Common also saw the first annually contested steeplechase in England, in 1830, when it was organised by Thomas Coleman, and the last fight of 19th-century bare-knuckle fighter Simon Byrne. It was also the haunt of the highwaywoman Lady Katherine Ferrers, better known as the "Wicked Lady".
A widespread but now little-known industry of Harpenden was straw-weaving, a trade mainly carried out by women in the 19th century. A good straw weaver could make as much as a field labourer. The straw plaits were taken to specialist markets in St Albans or Luton and bought by dealers to be converted into straw items such as boaters and other hats or bonnets.
The arrival of the railway system from 1860 and the sale of farms for residential development after 1880 radically changed Harpenden's surroundings. First the Dunstable Branch of the Great Northern Railway passed through the Batford area, with a station later named Harpenden East railway station. The Midland Railway main line was built in 1868 with a station near the main village, which still exists today, and the listed Southdown Road Skew Bridge nearby. The Harpenden and Hemel Hempstead Railway, known locally as the Nicky Line, was opened in 1877.
Between 1848 and 1914, the common was a regular venue for horse racing. In his History of Hertfordshire in 1879, John Edwin Cussans commented "Notwithstanding that these meetings are under the most unexceptional patronage as regards the Stewards, yet for two days in the year all the London pickpockets, sharpers and blackguards who happen to be out of gaol are permitted to make Harpenden their own and to make travelling in a first-class carriage on the Midland Railway a danger to men and an impossibility to ladies." Golf has been played on the Common since 1894 and it was at that time Harpenden Golf Club was set up by a group of Harpenden people with the help and a financial contribution of 5 pounds from Sir John Bennet Lawes of Rothamsted Manor. The club moved to a new course at Hammonds End in 1931, at which time Harpenden Common Golf Club was formed by those who wanted to remain at the Common. In 1932 Bamville Cricket club was formed and shares part of the Common with the Golfers.
Harpenden is the home of Rothamsted Manor and Rothamsted Research, a leading centre for agricultural research. In front of its main building, which faces the common, is a stone, erected in 1893, commemorating 50 years of experiments by Sir John Bennet Lawes and Joseph Henry Gilbert.
Lawes inherited the family estate at Rothamsted in 1834. Acknowledged as "the father of agricultural science", his early field experiments on Hertfordshire farms led him to patent a phosphate fertiliser, the sales of which enriched him immensely. With the proceeds, he established the experimental station, building laboratories in the 1850s. The station continued the development of the artificial fertilisers on which most modern farmers now depend. Some of the long-term 'classical field experiments' begun by Lawes and Gilbert remain in place to this day representing a unique resource for agricultural and environmental research.
In 1913 the National Children's Home moved to Harpenden with a large site Highfield Oval which was home to over 200 children. The site featured a print works, a carpenters' and joiners' shop, a bootmakers shop and a farm where boys undertook apprenticeships. Girls were mainly trained in domestic service with some being trained in sewing and office work. The children lived in a "family" of 8-10 children each run by a sister or house mother. The chapel was gift from Joseph Rank and was built in 1928. The home was run on site until 1985. The site is now the head office of Youth with a Mission an international Christian missionary organization. The Harpenden Growth Study, one of the earliest longitudinal tests, was overseen by James Mourilyan Tanner and monitored the development of many of the children over a number of years.
During the Second World War, Harpenden was used to evacuate children from heavily bombed London. 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. It has been suggested both that it be used for educational and emergency training purposes.
The Harpenden and District Local History Society has a collection of local material and archives which can be consulted, and holds regular meetings on topics of historical interest.

Geography

There are two civil parishes: Harpenden and Harpenden Rural. The town straddles two valleys; a dry valley to the south-west containing the town centre and Harpenden Common, and the valley of the River Lea to the north-east, containing the Batford area.
As Harpenden is located in Hertfordshire, just outside London, it is an area of extremely high property costs. Land Registry data suggests that the average house price in Harpenden in the first quarter of 2006 was £500,902, compared to £287,277 for the St Albans district generally and £183,598 nationally. The data also indicates that an unusually high proportion of houses in Harpenden are owner occupied. The average price of a detached house is over £900,000 as of January 2012.
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.

Climate

Governance

There are three tiers of local government covering Harpenden, at parish, district and county level: Harpenden Town Council, St Albans City and District Council and Hertfordshire County Council. The town council is based at Harpenden Town Hall on Leyton Road.
Harpenden is also part of the Harpenden and Berkhamsted UK Parliament constituency, represented by Victoria Collins of the Liberal Democrats.

Administrative history

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.
From 1835 Harpenden was included within the St Albans Poor Law Union. As such, Harpenden became part of the St Albans Rural Sanitary District in 1872, which in turn became the St Albans Rural District under the Local Government Act 1894. The 1894 Act also created parish councils. Harpenden Parish Council held its first meeting on 31 December 1894, with Captain Arthur Lydekker, a Conservative, being elected the first chairman. The parish council held its meetings at the Harpenden Institute at 12 Southdown Road.
Shortly after the creation of St Albans Rural District, efforts began to make Harpenden an urban district. It was decided that the whole parish of Harpenden was not suitable to become an urban district, with the west of the parish remaining largely rural. As such, Harpenden was split into two parishes on 15 April 1898, called Harpenden Urban and Harpenden Rural. The Harpenden Rural parish remained part of St Albans Rural District, whilst the Harpenden Urban parish became independent as Harpenden Urban District. Arthur Lydekker, who had been chairman of the old Harpenden Parish Council, was appointed the first chairman of Harpenden Urban District Council.
Until September 1899, Harpenden Urban District Council held its meetings at the Harpenden Institute, as the parish council had done. On the opposite side of the Common was the British School on Leyton Road. The school had been built in 1850 but was vacated in 1897 when the school moved to new premises on Victoria Road. The council took a lease of the old British School from its owners, the Lawes family of Rothamsted, and the building was opened as the "Public Hall" in September 1899, acting as the council's meeting place and offices, as well as providing a public hall.
In 1932, the council bought Harpenden Hall at 6 Southdown Road for £7,000 and converted it to act as offices and meeting place, moving into the building in early 1933. A new Public Hall was built in the former gardens of Harpenden Hall in 1938. The old public hall on Leyton Road became known as Park Hall.
The council was granted a coat of arms on 4 February 1949.
Harpenden Urban District Council was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, becoming part of the new district of St Albans on 1 April 1974. A successor parish was created for the former urban district, with its parish council taking the name Harpenden Town Council. The town council continued to be based at Harpenden Hall until 1996, when it moved to a new Town Hall built as a rear extension to the urban district council's former home of Park Hall.