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Aldbury
Adjacent Parishes: Berkhamsted St Peter, Northchurch, Pitstone (Bucks), Tring, Wigginton
It is in the hundred and modern borough of Dacorum.
It was in the Berkhamsted Union
General View of Aldbury
Card by Muncey, The Stores, Aldbury -
Posted 1910, printed circa 1905 -
(card also published uncoloured)
Aldbury is recorded in the Domesday Book as Aldeberie. It was in the Tring Hundred and "The Count [of Mortain] holds Aldbury himself. It answers for 10 hides. Land for 7 ploughs. In lordship 3 ploughs there. 8 villagers with 1 Freeman and 1 Frenchman have 4 ploughs. i smallholder; 4 slaves. Meadow ½hide; woodland, 500 pigs. Total value 110s; when acquired £8; before 1066 as much. Alwin, a thane of King Edward's, held this manor.
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Aldbury, a parish in the hundred of Dacorum, county of Hertford, 3 miles (E. by N.) from Tring, containing 676 inhabitants. The Living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Huntingdon, and the diocese of Lincoln, rated in the King's books at £20.8.6½., and in the patronage of the late Earl of Bridgewater. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is an ancient structure in the early style of English architecture, and contains an alter-tomb of an armed knight, in a recumbent posture, and his lady, also another, with brasses, to a knight and his lady, and their nine sons and three daughters, both executed in the richest style of ancient sculpture. This village is pleasantly situated at the foot of the Chiltern hills, the summits of which are crowned with thick plantations. There are three tenements for the residence of five widowers and widows, with an annual sum for keeping them in repair, the gift of an unknown benefactor. [Topographical Dictionary of England, 1831] |
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Tring Station is at least two miles east of the town in Aldbury parish and beyond this, a further mile and a half, is Aldbury, an old-world village nestling under the wooded slopes of Ashridge. I would bracket it with Little Hadham, on the east of Herts, as the county's prettiest and least unspoilt. The parish of Aldbury is small, only covering some 2,000 acres, but the village itself is compact and grouped around the central green. Opposite the pond on this green is [picture] a perfect example of a half-timbered building, dating from about 1650; wonderfully preserved, all the oak is left as it should be — grey weathered. It is totally wrong to daub these ancient half-timbered buildings with wood preservatives or brown stains; their original and natural state was that which nature gave them—a weathered grey. Immediately in front of this house are the village stocks and whipping post [picture], in fair repair, despite damage done to them some years ago by a marauding band of " visitors." To those who have read Mrs. Humphrey Ward's " Bessie Costrell" (and who has not?) I would remind them that " Clinton Magna " is really Aldbury. The gifted authoress lived at a house known as Stocks, a short distance to the north of the village green. The Church of St. John-the-Baptist was originally a thirteenth century Early English building, excepting the tower, which was added during the next century. But the whole building has been since much altered and restored. Most interesting is the Verney Chapel on the south side. The arrangement is rather unusual, it being separated from the nave by a fine stone screen. Within is the tomb of Sir Robert Whittingham, killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Nearby are two helms, and in the south pier of chancel arch is a hagioscope, giving a sight of the altar from the Verney Chapel. There remains a statue niche at the east of north aisle, and from the south aisle a stairway leads to the room over porch.. There are some old pew ends, and outside in the churchyard is a sundial on a wooden post [picture]. The registers date from 1693. Towards the end of the sixteenth century a windmill was erected at Aldbury, and in 1589-90 a licence was granted for a cottage to be built for the miller, who was to be "a painful man in his calling." But where that mill turned its sails I know not, but there is plenty of high ground hereabouts where it could have been. [A Pilgrimage in Hertfordshire, 1931] |
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Views from the Hills
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Stocks Park, Aldbury
Published by T. Muncey, Aldbury circa 1905 The picture shows the farm in the foreground and
Stocks House in In recent years the house has had a variety of occupiers. In 1944 it became a girls' Catholic school, but in 1972 it achieved notoriety when it was purchased by Victor Lownes of the men's magazine, Playboy. It then became a hotel, with the fields in the picture being converted to a golf course. It is now the home of racehorse trainer Walter Swinburn. [for more details see the Wikipedia entry] |
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Donkey Rides for the Visitors
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Overlooking the village is the Bridgewater Monument, and a holloway leads up the steep Chiltern hillside. The Monument is situated in the park surrounding Ashridge House and is at th the end of a clear vista, with woodland on either side. In the past it was possible to have donkey rides, and now the area is run by the National Trust, and there are electric buggies to allow the less mobile to explore selected paths through the extensive woodland. There is a web page with more information about Ashridge and the Monument. |
Books
The
book, Aldbury, the
Open Village, by Jean Davis, describes life and changes in the
village in the early 19th century. Because of the availability of good
contemporary maps and diaries it provides a particularly vivid account of the
the issues which faced the village folk - and for this reason is of interest to
anyone who is interested in everyday rural life in Hertfordshire 200 years ago. 
More recent people and events are covered by Jean's book, Aldbury People:
1885-1945, and Ruth, Lady Crauford's book Country Women at War
which relates to life in the village during the Second World War.
Jean Davis has also produced A
Visitor's Guide to Aldbury which is still on sale in the Village
Stores.
The book, A Hertfordshire Valley, includes a well-written chapter on Aldbury, some good pictures, and an addition chapter on Stocks House. There are also extensive references in the book, Dacorum - within Living Memory. The village is included in Nigel Goose's volume, Population ... in 1851: The Berkhamsted Region, which includes a transcript of the 1851 census.
There is a chapter on Victor Lownes and his connection with Stocks House in More Tring Personalities.
The village green with the old houses round it, its pond and the stocks, have attracted tourists for generations and as a result virtually every popular book on the County of Hertfordshire, or on the Chiltern Hills has included something about Aldbury, together with at least one picture of the stocks and the pond!
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Local Links |
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 Village Ponds |
 The Church in 2006 |
 More about the Stocks |
 The Aldbury Holloways |
 Tompkin's Hertfordshire |
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Aldbury Postcard publishers |
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Some External Links |
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Aldbury
(Victoria County History) |
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See also Vital Records
If you know of other books, websites, etc, relating to this place, please tell me.
Page spring cleaned July 2007
the
middle distance, the wood in the distance being called Aldbury
Nowers.
