Hertford (, HART-fərd) is a market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is the county town of Hertfordshire and lies 20 miles (32 km) north of Charing Cross in Central London. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 29,418 and the built up area had a population of 28,800.
The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, near its confluences with the rivers Mimram, Beane, and Rib. The Lea is navigable from the Thames up to Hertford. Fortified settlements were established on each side of the ford at Hertford in 913 AD. The county of Hertfordshire was established at a similar time, being named after and administered from Hertford. Hertford Castle was built shortly after the Norman Conquest and remained a royal residence until the early seventeenth century.
Hertfordshire County Council and East Hertfordshire District Council both have their main offices in the town and are major local employers, as is McMullen's Brewery, which has been based in the town since 1827. The town is also popular with commuters, having two railway lines connecting it to London.
Toponymy
The earliest reference to the town appears in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written by Bede in 731 AD, which refers to Herutford. Herut is the Old English spelling of hart, meaning a fully mature stag; thus the meaning of the name is a ford where harts are found. The Domesday Book of 1086 gives a spelling of Hertforde.
History
One possible earlier mention of the town was in 672 AD: the first synod of a number of the bishops in England was held either in Hertford or at Hartford, Cambridgeshire. The synod was called by Theodore of Tarsus; decisions included the calculation of the date of Easter.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in 913 AD, Edward the Elder ordered the construction of two burhs (earthwork fortifications) either side of the ford over the River Lea at Hertford as part of his campaign against the Danes.
By the time of the Domesday Book, Hertford had two churches, two markets and three mills. The Normans began work on Hertford Castle, and Hertford Priory was founded by Ralph de Limesy. King Henry II rebuilt the castle in stone, but in 1216, during the First Barons' War, it was besieged and captured after 25 days by Prince Louis of France. The castle was regularly visited by English royalty and in 1358, Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II, died there. The priory was dissolved in 1536 and subsequently demolished. In 1563, the Parliament of England met at the castle because of an outbreak of plague in London.
Hertford grew and prospered as a market and county town; communication was improved by the construction of the Lea Navigation Canal in 1767 and the arrival of the railway in 1843. The Port Hill drill hall was completed in 1898 and Yeomanry House was brought into military use in 1910.
Samuel Stone was born in Fore Street, Hertford in 1602. He became a Puritan minister and emigrated to America, where he settled at a Native American community called Saukiog in Connecticut. He was instrumental in developing the community into a city, renaming it Hartford in 1637, after his birthplace. A statue of Samuel Stone was erected in The Wash in the centre of Hertford in 1999.
Governance
There are three tiers of local government covering Hertford, at parish (town), district, and county level: Hertford Town Council, East Hertfordshire District Council, and Hertfordshire County Council. The town council is based at Hertford Castle. The district council is also based in the town, at Wallfields on Pegs Lane. The county council was formerly also based in the town, at County Hall, but moved its main offices and meeting place to Stevenage in 2025.
Administrative history
Hertford was an ancient borough, and served as the county town of Hertfordshire from the county's formation in Saxon times. The town also gave its name to the hundred of Hertford.
The borough evolved from the burhs established either side of the Lea in 913. Hertford was described as having burgesses in the Domesday Book of 1086, indicating that it was then administered as a borough. A government survey in 1834 noted that Hertford's earliest surviving municipal charter dated from 1554.
The borough was initially governed by the king's reeves. By the thirteenth century, the reeves had been replaced by a bailiff, elected by the burgesses. Charters of 1554 and 1589 established a common council of eleven chief burgesses and a bailiff. Another charter of 1605 changed the bailiff's title to mayor.
The borough boundaries appear to have initially covered a relatively small area of what is now the town centre. The earliest known description of the borough boundaries dates from 1621. The boundaries were significantly enlarged under a new charter of 1680 to cover the built up area as it then was.
The borough was reformed to become a municipal borough in 1836 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, which standardised how most boroughs operated across the country. As part of those reforms, the borough boundaries were enlarged to match the Hertford constituency. The borough was then administered by a body formally called the "mayor, aldermen and burgesses of the borough of Hertford", generally known as the corporation. The corporation used part of the Shire Hall as its town hall until 1911, when it moved into the surviving gatehouse of Hertford Castle.
The borough boundaries were enlarged in 1892, when the added areas included Bengeo on the north bank of the River Beane. The borough was enlarged again in 1935, when the added areas included the village of Hertingfordbury to the west of the town.
The borough of Hertford was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. District-level functions passed to the new East Hertfordshire District Council. A successor parish called Hertford was created covering the former borough, with its parish council taking the name Hertford Town Council.
Coat of arms
From at least 1634, Hertford Corporation used an escutcheon (shield) depicting a hart above water to indicate a ford. The borough council was granted the right to complement its arms with a badge in 1925, and supporters were added in 1937. The arms were transferred to the new town council in 1975.
Geography
Hertford is at the confluence of four river valleys: the Rib, Beane and Mimram join the River Lea at Hertford to flow east and then south toward the Thames as the Lee Navigation, after Hertford Castle Weir. The shared valley of the Lea and the Beane is called Hartham Common and this provides a large park to one side of the town centre running towards Ware and lying below the ridge upon which Bengeo is situated.
The town centre still has its medieval layout with many timber-framed buildings hidden under later frontages, particularly in St Andrew Street. Hertford suffers from traffic problems caused by the existence of the 1960s A414 dual carriageway called Gascoyne Way which carved through the town, destroying many historic buildings in its path and cutting off the southern part of the town from the northern part. Plans have long existed to connect the A10 with the A414 on the west side of Hertford, a proper bypass, but they have so far foundered. Nevertheless, the town retains very much a country-town feel, despite lying only 19.2 miles (30.9 km) north of Central London. This is aided by its proximity to larger towns such as Harlow, Bishop's Stortford and Stevenage where modern development has been focused.
Economy
A fair amount of employment in the town is centred on County Hall (Hertfordshire County Council), Wallfields (East Hertfordshire District Council) and McMullens Brewery, one of a dwindling number of independent pre-1970 family brewers in the United Kingdom. Many residents commute to work in London.
Hertford differs from neighbouring towns as it lacks a modern shopping development (mall). However, it has most of the usual supermarkets. A Tesco store occupies part of the former Christ's Hospital Bluecoat Girls School, which closed down in 1985. Sainsbury's opened a new store on part of the McMullens Brewery site in June 2012. A Waitrose occupied a reasonably large store in the Bircherley Green Shopping area that closed on 12 September 2017. The local branch of Woolworths closed for good on 27 December 2008, after the collapse of that store chain. There are fewer of the usual chain shops found in most high streets and this makes Hertford stand out from other "clone towns". There are a high number of independent shops in the town, with a variety of boutiques and salons.
Sport and leisure
Hertford has a leisure centre and swimming pool, skatepark, bowling green and tennis courts on Hartham Common.
The town has a Non-League football club, Hertford Town F.C., which plays at Hertingfordbury Park. Hertford Town Youth FC, a FA Charter Standard Football Club, plays at County Hall Playing Fields, situated next to the headquarters of Hertfordshire County Council at County Hall in Hertford. Other clubs in the surrounding area include Bury Rangers, Hertford Heath Youth FC and Bengeo Tigers Football Club (an award-winning FA Charter Standard Community Football Club.)
Cricket
Hertford Cricket Club is based in the town. Records for a Hertford club go back a far as 1825,. However, the club in its present form has been in existence since 1860. The club plays its matches at Balls park, Hertford. Currently the club runs five teams and all the teams play in the local league.
Notable people
- Samuel Stone, Puritan minister who established the American town of Hartford, Connecticut with Thomas Hooker. He lived in Fore Street, Hertford and was baptised at All Saints Church. There is a statue commemorating him, close to the Hertford Theatre.
- Jane Wenham was tried at the Hertford Assizes for witchcraft in 1712. The jury found her guilty, one of the last in England to be convicted of this offence. Judge Powell had no choice but to condemn her to death, but through his influence she was later given a Royal Pardon.
- Jack Trevor Story, the author of "The Trouble with Harry" and other works, was born in Hertford in 1917.
- Television and radio reporter and presenter Tom Heap was born in Hertford.
- Actor Rupert Grint comes from Hertford, and although he now lives outside the town, he lived within Hertford when he began filming for the Harry Potter film series. He attended Richard Hale School until finishing his GCSE exams in 2004. Other famous former pupils of Richard Hale School are listed on the school's page.
- Dani Filth, singer of Cradle of Filth was born in Hertford, but grew up in Ipswich.
- Singer George Ezra was born and grew up in Hertford, attending Simon Balle School.
- International rugby union players Robbie Morris and Jamie George.
- Cricketers Stuart Cradock, John Hughes and Lawrence Wright were born in Hertford.
- The Labour Party MP for Liverpool Walton between 1964 and 1984, Labour Chairman, government minister and shadow cabinet minister Eric Heffer was born in Hertford in 1922
Landmarks
- In the town are the remains of the original Hertford Castle, principally a motte. The castle's gatehouse, the central part of which dates to a rebuild by Edward IV in 1463, is the home to Hertford Town Council. The Motte, from the original Motte and Bailey castle in Hertford, can be found just behind Beam (formerly Castle Hall/Hertford Theatre), a short distance from the modern castle.
- There are several churches in the town. All Saints' and St Andrew's are late and mid 19th century respectively, although both stand on the sites of medieval places of worship. In the northern suburb of Bengeo lies St Leonard's, a two-celled Norman church of considerable architectural interest.
- In Railway Street can be found the oldest purpose-built Quaker Meeting House in the world, in use since 1670.