East of Welwyn Garden City and west of Harlow Town, is the county town of Hertford, Hertfordshire. Growing out from where the River Lea joins to its tributaries, this town has a long history, and has been Hertfordshire’s county town since the Saxon era! It has become a stable commuter belt community in recent years, owing to its proximity to London with its direct rail line and the M25, and so has a well developed and affluent housing market. The stock ranges from Dutch inspired townhouses toward the centre, to large country properties in its outskirts, varying in price from £700,000 to £1.2 million!

Hertford’s recorded history is long. It begins in 672 AD, with the meeting of the bishops in Hertford to discuss ecclesiastical issues (known as a synod). Called by the Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus, it was at Hertford that the calculation for the date of Christian Easter was set! The Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Elder, in 912 AD, built two fortifications each side of the River Lea to help fight the Danish invasion, and this developed into the town of Hertford. By the 1086 Domesday Book survey, Hertford already had two markets in operation and was a thriving community; something which has only developed further throughout the centuries!

Normally, when people think of Hertford, they think of an affable commuter town, winding side-streets, and countryside vistas - they don’t normally think of underground societies. But, Hertford has a strange connection to the Knights Templar, a military order within the Catholic church that disbanded by order of the Pope in 1312. Members of the order were once imprisoned within Hertford’s Castle in 1308! Nothing has been heard from by the order in several centuries, until a Hertford man, Tim Acheson, made a public communication to the Vatican in 2004 demanding a public apology for their persecution. Acheson also claimed there was a series of subterranean networks used by the Templars right underneath the centre of Hertford!

Owing to its proximity to London and connection to the pastoral landscape, development in the Hertford area is often expensive. Much of the centre of Hertford is a conservation area, and so there are strict guidelines to follow when developing an area. However, the 2018 Hertford Local Plan designated a minimum of 950 new homes to be built specifically in the Hertford North and East regions, with potential scope for windfall development also!