Nettleden

Nettleden
Buckinghamshire
Nettleden Church
Location
Grid reference:	TL0110
Location:	51°46’46"N, -0°32’15"W
Data
Population:	53
Post town:	Berkhamsted
Postcode:	HP4
Local Government
Council:	Dacorum
Parliamentary constituency:	Hemel Hempstead

Nettleden is a small village in Buckinghamshire, nestled amongst the Chiltern Hills and close by the border with Hertfordshire.

The village lies about four miles north-west of Hemel Hempstead. Beside it are Little Gaddesden, Great Gaddesden and Frithsden. It shares a civil parish with neighbouring hamlets as "Nettleden with Potten End".

The name of Nettleden is Old English in origin, and means simply "Nettle Valley", which is a good description of it even today. In manorial records of the late Twelfth century the village was recorded as Neteleydene.

The village sits in a very attractive location, on the periphery of Ashridge. From Nettleden to Frithsden goes the Roman Lane or Spooky Lane, named after the ghost of an Ashridge monk which local pub tales will tell of haunting hereabouts. In the early 19th century the lane was dug deep in the hill with high revetted walls on both sides and a bridge was built over the lane, in order that people using the driveway leading to Ashridge do not meet the villagers. Another feature of Nettleden is the steep Pipers Hill east of the village.

Parish church

The parish church is St Lawrence. Anciently the village belonged to the parish of Pitstone but had a chapel of ease; it broke away in 1895. Today Nettleden is an ecclesiastical parish in its own right, in the Diocese of St Albans. The parish includes the Ashridge Estate and its Ashridge Chapel.

St Lawrence, was first mentioned in 1285 when it became a part of the endowment of Ashridge Monastery. The church, except for the tower, was largely rebuilt in brick by John, Earl of Bridgewater (owner of the Ashridge Estate) in 1811.

History and community

When Nettleden became an ecclesiastical parish the hamlet of St Margaret's, formerly belonging to Ivinghoe was connected to Nettleden. At this place Henry de Blois bishop of Winchester founded the nunnery St Margaret's de Bosco.

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, St Margaret's came into private hands. During the Second World War the St Margaret's Camp was a London County Council Senior Boys School for evacuees from London. The school closed one week after the end of the war in Europe when all the boys were returned to their homes in London.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Nettleden)

• Friends of Nettleden Church
• Nettleden (A Guide to Old Hertfordshire)

References

William Page (editor) (1908). "Parishes: Nettleden". A History of the County of Hertford: volume 2. Institute of Historical Research. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43285. Retrieved 27 July 2011. 

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