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 subsequent history for well
over a thousand years, but the route through the Chilterns
became a major drovers route, with cattle being driven to London to provide fresh
meat. The name Cow Roast is almost certainly a corruption of "Cow
Rest" where there were 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
Landon kept The Cow in 1806.
(Mentioned in
Hertfordshire Inns
but no source given).
In 1811 the
Gentleman's Magazine, in
reporting on Roman remains from Wigginton, reported that coins and a gold
ring had been found at the Cow Roast Inn.
It is shown as Cow
Roast of Bryant's map
of 1822.
In 1823 the toll rates along the Turnpike
Road past the Cow Roast were set at 10d.
per score for a drove of oxen or cattle. and the rates were raised in 1832.
(see
Berkhamsted: An Illustrated
History)
In 1827 an inquest
was held at the Cow Roast Inn - see
A Fist Fight at Wigginton.
The 1828/9
Pigot's Directory for
Hertfordshire, under Tring,
lists Thomas London.
Cow Roast,
Wigginton. (Note that that many early directories, such as this
one, did not normally list farmers.)
In 1837 the
London to Birmingham Railway was
built through the valley to the east of the canal.
The 1839
Pigot's Directory for
Hertfordshire, under Tring,
lists Thomas Landon,
Cow Roast Wharf, under both "Taverns and
Public Houses" and "Wharfingers".
The
1841
census
lists Thomas Landon (senior) as a Farmer
at the Cow Roast, Northchurch, with
Thomas Landen (junior) as Innkeeper at
the Cow Roast, Wigginton.
The 1846
Post Office Directory
for Hertfordshire, under Tring,
lists Thomas Landon senior as a famer,
and Thomas Landon,
junior as the tavern keeper of The Cow,
in Cow Road, Wigginton.
At the time of the
1851
census the Cow Roast households in
Northchurch
were headed by Thomas Landon (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 was not far south of the
Turnpike Road
Toll Gate at New Ground.
From
Craven's 1854
Directory for Hertfordshire
The hamlet 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 (closed, June
2004, but now reopened), with the canal marina
away from the main road over a canal bridge. In 1993 a new bypass for
Berkhamsted means that
there was a significant decease of traffic through Cow
Roast.
Where not stated information comes from the
book
A Hertfordshire Valley
and the booklet
Archaeology
in Dacorum.
