A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



ALBURY 



Eldeberie (xi cent.) ; Audeburia (xiii cent.) ; 

 Aldeburi, Aldcbeiy (xiv cent.). 



The parish of Albury contains 3,248 acres, of 

 which over 2,000 are arable and about one-quarter 

 permanent grass.' The district is fairly well wooded, 

 the more important woods being Patmore HaO Wood 

 in the north of the parish, Bog's Wood, Shaw Wood, 

 Upwick Wood and Salmon Mead Spring in the 

 east, Albury End Wood and Burrell's Spring in the 

 south, Ferrick's Wood in the west, and Ninno Wood 

 which lies along the .Ash in the centre of the parish. 

 This part of the river appears to have been known as 

 Ninno Water in the 17th century.^ The Ash flows 

 through the middle of the parish, and the land rises 

 from 2 5 I ft. above the ordnance datum in the valley 

 to about 37+ ft. in the east and to over 400 ft. in 

 the west. An inclosure award for Albury was 

 m.ide in 1869 under an Act of 1864.' 



Among the place-names in the parish were Chisley 

 Field Common, Ann's Common, Mill Field Com- 

 mon, Patmore Field, Clapgate Common, Parsonage 

 Field, Great Bushcy Ley, Molly's Chip.'' In the 

 south of the parish are two greens, Upwick Green and 

 Walnut Tree Green. 



The parish is bordered on the east by the boundary 

 between Essex and Hertfordshire, and on the south 

 by the Stane Street. 



The village lies nearly a mile to the north of Stane 

 Street, the church of St. Mary standing on high 

 ground on its north side. The manor-house of 

 Albury Hall stands in a park of 200 acres about half 

 a mile to the north-west. It was built by John 

 Calvert at the end of the i 8th century about So yards 

 north of the site of the original hall which he had 

 pulled down. The west wing was added by Richard 

 Dawson in 1848.' The house has been restored and 

 enlarged by its present owner, Mr. M. G. Carr Glyn. 

 The present vicarage is a modern house built about 

 1847,' on the south side of the village street. The 

 Parsonage Farm liei further west on the north side 

 of the road. Adjoining the churchyard is a 1 6th 

 or possibly I jth-century half-timbered house, much 

 altered in the last three centuries. It is a two- 

 storied rectangular building with a thatched roof 

 and is now divided into two cottages. There is 

 some ancient brick-nogging in the east front and in 

 the west gable is a 17th-century moulding in low 

 relief; in the south front is some plaster work 

 moulded in panels of about 1700. 



Albury Lodge, which stands about three-quarters 

 of a mile to the south-east of the church, was held 

 in the 17th century by the Brograves,^ and was pos- 

 sibly built by them about 1597, when they acquired 

 half the manor. It was built of timber, and during 

 the 19th century was cased in brick. The plan 

 of the house is E-shaped, with the main block facing 

 east. On the west is a projecting staircase wing. 

 Some of the rooms contain the original panelling 

 reset, and there is a pilaster with arabesque panels on 



the first floor. A small garden on the east is inclosed 

 by a 17th-century wall with a moulded brick plinth. 

 In the middle of the last century the village was 

 in a deplorable state. There was no resident clergy- 

 man, and the curate who rode over to take the 

 services was accustomed, if he found only a few people 

 assembled, to bribe them to go away. After the 

 purchase of the Patmore Hall estate by Mr. Hugh 

 Parnell in 1 848 the condition of affairs was altered. 

 The old vicarage to the west of the church, which 

 was uninhabitable, was pulled down, and in 1 849 a 

 school was built by public subscription on its site. 



Albury contains several small hamlets. Clapgate, 

 where there is a smithy, lies at the junction of the 

 village street with the Pelham road. In 1646-7 

 John Scroggs, lord of the manor of Patmore, com- 

 plained that John Ginne of Albury had inclosed 

 part of the common ' fayring way ' between Clap- 

 gate and Albury Church near a water-course, so that 

 the inhabitants were obliged to plunge into a pit 

 whenever it rained if they wished to pass that way 

 either to church or elsewhere.' Gravesend is a 

 hamlet on the Pelham road a little north of Clap- 

 gate. Albury End lies on a road leading south from 

 the village to Stane Street. Upwick is in the south- 

 east of the parish on the road to Farnham. 



At Patmore Heath is a village built round the 

 heath, on the east of which is a windmill. In 1683 

 several people were fined for attending an unlawful 

 conventicle at Patmore Heath. The preacher was 

 Thomas Burn, whose malt was seized by the con- 

 stables, probably in default of the payment of a fine.' 

 There is now an unsectarian mission chapel here. 

 Patmore Hall is now a farm. The present house 

 was built in 1862. A part of the Elizabethan 

 panelling from the old house, then pulled down, 

 was found in a fowl-house in 191 2 and removed to 

 Carldane Court, Much Hadham, where it has been 

 incorporated in a mantelpiece. Traces of a home- 

 stead moat which remain in the garden suggest that 

 the hall was once surrounded by a double moat. 

 There seem to be remains of earthworks also to the 

 south and south-east of the house.'" 



Upwick Hall lies a little over a mile to the south- 

 east of the church. Most of the house is modern, but 

 one of the doorways has an oak frame of Tudor date, 

 and two of the ground floor rooms have 1 7th-century 

 panelling. A stone on the east front of the house is 

 marked with the date 1646 and the initials T. S., 

 which probably refer to one of the Staceys. The 

 gardener's cottage at Upwick Hall dates from the 

 end of the 15 th century and is part of an L-shaped 

 building. It has an overhanging upper story. The 

 walls are of plaster, timber-framed, and the lower 

 story is weather-boarded. The red brick chimney 

 stack has square shafts set diagonally and is a 17th- 

 century addition. There are two large fireplace 

 openings placed back to back and spanned wi;h 

 wooden lintels. The doorway on the north side. 



* Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 

 ' Sen. R. (Herts. Co. Rec), i, 228. 

 ' Private Act, 26 & 27 Vict. cap. 



39- 



* Cussans, Hitt, of Htrti. Edivmitree 

 Hund. 159. ' Ibid. 



* East Herts, Arch. Soc. Trans, ii, 229. 

 ' See Chan.Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccici, t g. 



9 Sess. R. (Herts. Co. Rec), i, 89. 



9 Ibid. 334,343. 



'" East Herts. Arch. Soc. Trans. 

 238. 



