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Sparrows Herne Turnpike Road

DacorumHistory of HertfordshireTransport in HertfordshireTurnpike roads in the United KingdomUse British English from December 2016
Bowles watford tring 1782
Bowles watford tring 1782

Sparrows Herne Turnpike Road from London to Aylesbury was an 18th-century English toll road passing through Watford and Hemel Hempstead. The route was approximately that of the original A41 road; the Edgware Road, through Watford, Kings Langley, Apsley, the Boxmoor area of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Northchurch, Cow Roast and Tring. Much of this part is now numbered the A4251 road. It linked in with other turnpikes to the north forming a route to Birmingham. The turnpike trust was set up in 1762 by around 300 landed gentry to look after about 26 miles of road between Sparrows Herne near Bushey and Walton near Aylesbury. It was the turnpike's depot at Sparrows Herne which gave the road its name. The frequent use of the route by heavy carts carrying grain to London made it notorious for its rutted and pitted state even after being made into a turnpike. The turnpike survived the coming of the railways until 1872, when it passed to the route's various parishes and highway boards to maintain and the tolls were removed.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Sparrows Herne Turnpike Road (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Sparrows Herne Turnpike Road
London Road, Dacorum Berkhamsted

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Wikipedia: Sparrows Herne Turnpike RoadContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.7495 ° E -0.5343 °
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London Road

London Road
HP1 2RU Dacorum, Berkhamsted
England, United Kingdom
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Bowles watford tring 1782
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Little Heath Pit
Little Heath Pit

Little Heath Pit is a 0.3-hectare (0.74-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Little Heath near Potten End in Hertfordshire. It is part of the Ashridge Estate, owned by the National Trust, and the local planning authority is Dacorum Borough Council. It is listed in the Geological Conservation Review.The lowest layer is gravel dating to the beginning of the Pleistocene 2.6 million years ago. At this time the North Sea covered much of south-east England and the site was in an inter-tidal area, but since then the Chiltern Hills have risen 170 metres. Above this gravel layer is sand, and then another layer of gravel laid down some 20,000 years ago. This was the height of the last ice age, when the site was cold tundra like western Siberia today. According to Natural England the site is "controversial" as the new excavation shows gravel of possible marine origin rather than glacial till as previously believed.The size of the site is unclear. In April 2012 the Planning Inspectorate gave consent for the erection of fencing round the site to allow re-excavation of the site while protecting it against badger damage and protecting the public against accidentally falling into the deep pit. The size was given as 360 square metres (0.036 hectares). The excavation and erection of the fence were carried out shortly afterwards. However, the Natural England (NE) citation gives the area as 0.3 hectares and the NE map shows a larger area of 1.2 hectares.There is access to the site from Bullbeggars Lane. The surrounding area is wooded and covered in deep pits called locally 'dells''. These are the remains of working to extract the gravel during World War One to make sandbags of use at the front.