Cow Roast
It is a hamlet lying part in Northchurch and part in Wigginton
Excavations have shown that the Cow Roast was the site an early Romano-British settlement. and the area is protected as an ancient monument. Coins have been found dating from the time of the pre-Roman leader Tasciovanus and Roman Emperors from Claudius (41-54 AD) to Honorius (395-423 AD). It stood on the major Roman Road which runs through a gap in the Chiltern Hills and was later known as Akeman Street. The general line of this road has remained in use until the present day. In 1813 a bronze helmet was found, while digging the canal, which is known as the Tring Helmet, and is in the British Museum.
Little is known about its history for well over a thousand years, but the route through the Chilterns was a major drovers route, with cattle being driven to London to provide fresh meat. The name is almost certainly a corruption of "Cow Rest" where there pens and grazing for the cattle to be held overnight.
In 1762 the road was improved as part of the Sparrow's Herne Turnpike, which ran from Bushey Heath to Aylesbury, and a toll gate was established at the nearby New Ground. Dury & Andrew's map of 1766 shows one large and one smaller building on (at least approximately) the site of the present day Cow Roast public house.
In 1800 the Grand Junction Canal opened, with a lock (and now a marina) about 50 yards on on the other (East) side of the old road.
The earliest written record suggests that a Thomas Langdon kept The Cow in 1806.
It is shown as Cow Roast of Bryant's map of 1822.
In 1837 the London to Birmingham Railway was built through the valley to the East of the canal.
At the time of the 1851 census the Cow Roast households in Northchurch were headed by Thomas Langdon (farmer, 73), living in Somerset House, Charles Pignal (hostler, 46), and three farm labourers, Barnel Smith (22), John Grover (45) and James Halsey (34). Two families were living by the canal lock at Cow Roast. George Birdsley (41) was the lock keeper while Robert H. Platt was a "Water Account Keeper". (see MUSTILL, Cow Roast, Northchurch, 1891-1943 for further information about this occupation and an earlier reference to the paper maker, John Dickinson, monitoring the water flow.) The Cow Roast Inn was listed in Wigginton, the innkeeper being Thomas Langdon (farmer, 39).
It currently consists of the Cow Roast public house, a row of mid 20th century houses and one older house, a petrol station and a separate car sales site (recently closed, June 2004), with the canal marina away from the main road over a canal bridge. In 1993 a new bypass means that there is a significant decease of traffic through Cow Roast.
Where not stated information comes from the book A Hertfordshire Valley.
Book: Archaeology in Dacorum
There are web pages on Northchurch and Wigginton
If you know of other books, websites, etc, relating to this place, please tell me.