HERTFORD HUNDRED 



now remains except some old garden walls, which may 

 be old inclosure walls, and a fragment of a moat which 

 may have surrounded the monastery. As early as 

 1183 Lucius III exempted the site from payment of 

 tithes. 7 The nunnery, or part of it, appears to have 

 been destroyed by fire between the granting of a 

 charter by Henry III in 1240 and 1315, when the 

 nuns stated in a petition to the king that the charter had 

 been burnt. 8 The fire must have taken place about 

 1 290, in which year the nuns sought help from the 

 king because they were impoverished by a fire. 9 In 

 1312 indulgence was granted for the fabric of the 

 church of the house of the nuns of Cheshunt for their 

 dormicory and other places. '* The last remains of the 

 nunnery were taken down early in the 1 9th 

 century." Eastward of Turnford is Hell 

 Wood, which contains a good example of a 

 homestead moat inclosing two islands. 



Flamstead End is a hamlet north of 

 Churchgate, and is approached from the 

 Great North Road by Brookfield Lane, 

 which skirts the reservoir formed by the 

 New River Water Company. The hamlet is 

 built at the meeting of four roads. There 

 are here some nursery grounds, cottages and 

 one or two inns, including the Plough Inn, 

 a 17th-century timber-framed house, now 

 plastered, with a projecting upper story on 

 the south side. 



In Church Lane near to the Great North 

 Road is a row of 17th-century cottages. 

 This lane continues under the name of 

 Andrews Lane, probably so called from the 

 manor of Andrews, of which the Great 

 House is the manor-house, to Burton 

 Grange, the residence of Mrs. Mason, to 

 which is attached a small park. 



GofF's Oak, formed into a district chapelry 

 in 1871 with the church of St. James built 

 in 1861, is a hamlet on the west side of the 

 parish which communicates with the village 

 of Cheshunt by GofFs Lane. The early 

 tradition as to this name being taken from 

 a certain Sir Theodore Godfrey, a follower 

 of William the Conqueror, or from a Saxon 

 personal name, seems to be baseless." The 

 remains of an ancient oak tree still exist 

 opposite GofFs Oak public-house, but Goff 

 is not an uncommon surname in the parish. 

 William Goff had a ninety-nine years lease 

 of Cheshunt Park in 1650, and there is a 

 19th-century monument to a member of 

 the family in the church. It is probably 

 from a member of this family that the oak 

 was called. On the east side of GofFs Oak, a little 

 off the road on the north side, is a homestead moat. 

 In GofFs Lane is ' Clara mont,' a modernized house, 

 to which is attached a small park. Southward of 

 GofF's Lane is Silver Street, which forms the northern 

 boundary of Woodgreen Park, the house of which 

 was built by Mr. James Bentley, D.L., in 1 840, and 

 is now the residence of Mr. Edmund T. Doxat, J. P. 

 Other hamlets are Hammond Street and Appleby 

 Street in the north of the parish and Bury Green 



CHESHUNT 



hamlet in the south. At some distance south of the 

 village and church lies Theobalds Park, through 

 which the New River flows. A description of the 

 house will be found later. As might be expected 

 in a low-lying district, there are many homestead 

 moats in the parish. Besides those already referred 

 to there are others at Factory Farm, near Theobalds 

 Park Farm, and near Cheshunt station. 



Cheshunt has numbered amongst its inhabitants at 

 different times many people of historical importance. 

 Queen Elizabeth lived for several years at Sir Anthony 

 Denny's house at Cheshunt before she came to the 

 throne, and when Roger Ascham succeeded Grindal 

 as her tutor in 1 548 he too took up his residence at 



I 





mm: 





Goff's Oak, Cheshunt 



Cheshunt. 13 John Tillotson, afterwards Archbishop 

 of Canterbury, who was cur.ite of Cheshunt from 

 1661 to 1663, lived with Sir Thomas D acres 'at the 

 great house near the church.' '* Richard Cromwell 

 on his return to England in 1680 stayed with 

 Serjeant (afterwards Chief Baron) Pengelly in a house 

 near the one now called Pengelly House close to the 

 church. This was a 17th-century house, which was 

 burnt down in 1888, after which the site was covered 

 with cottages. Richard Cromwell died at Cheshunt 



' Dugdale, Mot. Angi, iv, 328. 

 8 Cat. Pat. 1513-17, p. 2$2. 

 » Part. R. i, Si . 



10 Line. Epis. Reg. Dalderby, Mem. 



11 Dugdale, Man. Attgl. iv, 329. 



" See Cusaana, His!, of Hera. Hertford 



