BRAUGHING HUNDRED 



the places where the old channel was stopped up." 

 Manifold Ditch and Black Ditch, now filled with stag- 

 nant water, formed Che original channel of the Lea. 10 



The i 



nagement 



of the 



i thirteen 



conservators chosen by different representative bodies, 

 including the Corporation of London and the Metro- 

 politan Water Board. The fishing rights are held by 

 the conservators. 



Half a mile distant from the town is the head of 

 the New River, which is fed by a spring in the 

 meadow called Chadwell lta in this parish and by some 

 deep wells in the parish of Great Amwell, as well as 

 by a cut from the Lea using part of the old Manifold 

 Ditch. The scheme for making this river was pro- 

 posed by Hugh Middleton, commissioner for the 

 water supply of London in the reign of James I, 

 with the object of supplying fresh water to the north 

 of London. An Act of Parliament empowering the 

 corporation of the city of London to make the trench 

 was passed in 1605. n Middleton had offered to 

 bear all the expense, but long before it was finished 

 he had to petition for a royal grant, and the king in 

 1612 promised to pay half the expanses. The river 

 was finished in 1613, and in 1619 the shareholders 

 were incorporated. 12 



Palaeolithic implements and a neolithic celt have 

 been found in Ware. 13 Ermine Street ran through 

 the parish on the west, and many Roman coins and 

 antiquities have been found in Bury Field, close by 

 Ware lock, whilst excavating for Messrs. Allen & 

 Hanbury's factory in 1 899.'* 



The town is situated on the west side of the parish 

 on the River Lea, a little to the east of the line of 

 Ermine Street. The main road to Buntingford and 

 Royston runs through it, forming the High Street 

 and the continuation of it called Baldock Street 

 (Baldokstrete 15 iz). 1 ' High Street is the chief 

 street of the town, and contains many 17th and 

 18th-century houses. The detached groups of houses 

 on the north side seem to be encroachments on the 

 market-place, which, now a square space in front of 

 the town hall, may have been originally a triangle in 

 shape with the base at the church. 16 The market 

 dates back to 1 199, and must have been of considerable 

 importance in the development of the town. The 

 oldest houses are probably those on the south of the 

 market-place which have back premises extending down 

 to the river. Later extension of the town has been 

 almost entirely on the north, first between High Street 

 and Musley Lane and then north of Musley Lane. 



In the High Street probably the oldest house is 

 no. 65, formerly the Christopher Inn, lr but now a 

 house and shop occupied by Mr. Harradence. The 

 main building facing on the road has been much 

 altered In the 18th and 19th centuries. It has a 

 large archway with late 15th-century details opening 

 into a courtyard. The wing running south in the 

 east side of the courtyard seems to have formed part 

 of two 1 ;th-century timber and plaster houses, which 



WARE 



had a narrow alley between them running through 

 what is now a coal cellar in the middle of the wing. 

 The upper stories of these houses project and were 

 apparently connected by a bridge from which a 

 gallery ran on the west side of the south house. 

 There are many 15th-century details still remaining 

 in the building. Near this house is a plastered timber 

 and brick house with the date 1624, but altered in 

 the 1 8th and 19th centuries. It contains some good 

 panelling and two fine overmantels. In an upper 

 room are the initials , H S and the date 1624. On 

 the north side of the High Street is a 17th-century 

 house of timber and brick with a tiled roof known as 

 the Blue Boot Store. It has been considerably altered 

 to adapt it for a shop, but two interesting plaster ceil- 

 ings remain, bearing shields of arms (two lions passant 

 between three crosslets). Another 1 7th-century house 

 on the north side is Gilpin House, called in memory 

 of the famous ride. At Blue Coat Yard, formerly Place 

 House, a little off the High Street, is an 18th-century 

 house which was till 1760 a branch house of the 

 Blue Coat School or Christ's Hospital, London. This 

 house stands in a couriyard which is entered by a 

 brick gateway of the loth century. Over the gate- 

 way is a niche which formerly contained a figure 

 of a blue coat boy now moved to the Blue Coat 

 School at Hertford. On the west side of the court- 

 yard are twelve picturesque cottages of about the 

 middle of the 17th century and on the east some 

 18th-century buildings formerly belonging to the 

 school. There is a group of 17th-century houses 

 with overhanging stones on the north side of Ware 



In Baldock Street is a 16th-century house (no. 23), 

 which has been much altered in the 18th and 19th 

 centuries. It has an archway leading to the yard 

 behind the house. On the east side of Wadesmill 

 Road is a 17th-century house now covered with 

 plaster and on the west side a group of red brick mak- 

 ings of the 17th century, one with a brick mullioned 

 window. In Crib Street are several 1 yth-century 

 houses including the Green Dragon, the Albion and 

 Red Cow Inns. They are all of timber and plaster with 

 tiled roofs and mostly with overhanging upper stories. 



The present iron bridge over the Lea was built in 

 184.5 b / G- Stephenson. There was a bridge over 

 the river, probably on the site of the existing bridge, 

 as early as 1191. It is mentioned then as having 

 been broken down by the men of Hertford le who 

 were trying to force all traffic to make the passage of 

 the Lea at Hertford instead of taking the more direct 

 route through Ware. The bailiff of Hertford claimed 

 rights over the bridge as appurtenant to the borough 

 of Hertford, and the early bridge was kept closed to 

 carts by a bar, the keys of this and also of a chain 

 across the adjoining ford being held by the king's 

 bailiff of Hertford. It was not until the Barons' War 

 in the reign of John that the bridge was opened to 

 traffic. 10 The tolls were then constantly disputed 



1S Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), portf.17g.no. 71. 



