Whitwell, Hertfordshire

St. Paul's Walden Bury is an English country house and surrounding gardens in the village of St Paul's Walden in Hertfordshire. The house is a Grade II* listed, and the gardens Grade I. A home of the Bowes-Lyon family, it is possibly the site of the birth of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.The garden wilderness, or highly formalized woodland, is a very rare survival, and the "most perfect surviving" English example. It was laid out in the 1730s with straight walks in the old formal style, when these were already becoming rather unfashionable.The house, of red brick with stone dressings and slate roofs, was built around the 1730s for Edward Gilbert (1680–1762). His daughter Mary married George Bowes of Gibside, Durham, and the estate has been in the possession of the Bowes or Bowes-Lyon family since 1720. James Paine made alterations to the house in the 1770s, which was also extended to the rear in the late nineteenth century.

Stagenhoe is a Grade II listed stately home and surrounding gardens located in the village of St Paul's Walden in Hertfordshire. It is approximately 6 miles (10 km) south of Hitchin. It was the family seat of the Earl of Caithness. Socialite Lady Euphemia Sinclair spent her childhood there and became a friend of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, whose family were neighbours. It is one of two large manors with fine grounds in the village, the other being the historic home of the Bowes-Lyon family, St Paul's Walden Bury.

St Paul's Walden is a village about 5 miles (8 km) south of Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. The civil parish of St Paul's Walden also includes the village of Whitwell and the hamlet of Bendish. At the 2011 Census, the population of the civil parish was 1,293.After the Reformation the manor belonged to St Paul's Cathedral; the name St Paul's Walden serves to distinguish the parish from King's Walden, although the Dean and Chapter sold their property in the 17th century.

Bendish is a hamlet located in the parish of St Paul's Walden in Hertfordshire. In the 18th century, Bendish was a small town. It is about 3 miles east of Luton, 5 miles south of Hitchin and 4.5 miles north of Harpenden. Many services such as the grocers, the 3 pubs and the Church have all closed. Bendish is not a nucleated hamlet, due to the effects of rural to urban migration through the unemployment of residents as of the result of mechanisation. Farmers' houses were knocked down, leading to the somewhat staggered placing of the current houses today. There is no longer an active telephone box, but a post box is still in operation.

Kimpton is a village in Hertfordshire, England, six miles south of Hitchin, seven miles north of St Albans and four miles from Harpenden and Luton. The population at the 2011 Census was 2,167.

Preston is a village and civil parish about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census the population was 420.The village grew up around the Templar holdings at Temple Dinsley. The first church was mentioned in 1252, when six acres (24,000 m2) of land was given to nuns from Elstow, Bedfordshire. Temple Dinsley passed on to the Knights Hospitaller after the dissolution of the Templars. When the Hospitallers were in turn dissolved in 1542, the manor went to Sir Ralph Sadleir. The current house at Temple Dinsley dates from 1714, and became Princess Helena College in 1935. The college closed in 2021.In the 17th century the village became linked with John Bunyan, who used to hold services in a natural amphitheatre now called Bunyan's Dell. Prior to 1894, Preston and neighbouring Langley were part of the parish of Hitchin, together forming a long salient to the south of the town itself. Preston and Langley became separate civil parishes as a result of the Local Government Act 1894, with effect from the first parish meeting on 4 December 1894. Preston civil parish was then included in the Hitchin Rural District between 1894 and 1974, when it became part of North Hertfordshire. The parish of Preston was enlarged in 1955 with the addition of territory from the neighbouring parishes of St Ippolyts and King's Walden.St Martin's, the local Anglican church, opened in 1900. The ruined Minsden Chapel, reputed to be haunted, is located near the village, though is actually in Langley civil parish.

PHC was a co-educational independent day and boarding school for students aged 11 to 18 in Preston near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. The school was housed in a Queen Anne country house, formerly known as Temple Dinsley, which was redesigned by Edwin Lutyens, at the same time as the gardens were designed by his great friend, Gertrude Jekyll. The house is listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England, and the gardens and landscaped park are listed Grade II* on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

Hill End Pit (also called Hill End Farm Pit or Hitch Wood Pit) is a 0.7-hectare (1.7-acre) nature reserve on the site of a former chalk pit, in St Paul's Walden in North Hertfordshire. It was formerly managed by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust (HMWT). In February 2016 HMWT announced that three sites, Barkway Chalk Pit, Hill End Pit and Pryor's Wood, which HMWT managed on behalf of their owner, North Hertfordshire District Council, were to return to Council management as the Trust was no longer able to meet the cost. It has the largest colony of Azeca goodalli snails in Hertfordshire. Plants include viper's bugloss, cowslip and marjoram, there are butterflies such as common blue and gatekeeper, and many birds including woodpeckers.The site is a Regionally important geological site (RIGS), dating to the Turonian age of the late Cretaceous around 90 million years ago, and was formerly a Site of Special Scientific Interest. According to A Geological Conservation Strategy for Hertfordshire, published by the Hertfordshire RIGS Group: This pit is of national stratigraphic and international palaeontological importance, but has lost its original SSSI status and is now very degraded. It is the type locality of the Hitch Wood Hardground at the top of the Chalk Rock. This hardground is exceptionally fossiliferous here, and has probably yielded more fossils of all groups (notably ammonites) than any other Chalk Rock locality apart from the Kensworth Chalk Pit GCR site, Bedfordshire.The site gives its name to the siliceous sponge genus Hillendia, and is the type locality of the genus, and two fossil ammonite species, Subprionocyclus hitchinensis and Subprionocyclus branneri have been described from this site after being discovered there.It is shown on the Natural England Magic map as one of the "Geological places to visit".The site is located off a track leading from Hitchwood Lane to Hill End Farm Lane. It is difficult to find, but the site noticeboard is visible through a gap in the hedge on the left hand side of the track.

Minsden Chapel is an isolated ruined chapel in the fields above the hamlet of Chapelfoot, near Preston, Hertfordshire. Today it is a roofless shell, partly surrounded by a small wood, and accessible only by footpath. It is a Scheduled Monument and is Grade II Listed.

Ansells End is a hamlet of four historic homes in Hertfordshire, England. The population of the hamlet at the 2011 Census was included in the civil parish of Kimpton. Originally three farmsteads with the modern addition of a 16th-century barn converted into a property in the 21st century. One of the houses has parts dating to the early 1300s. In 2023 the population is fewer than a dozen residents.

Wain Wood is an ancient woodland extending to 19.2 hectares (47 acres) near Preston in North Hertfordshire. The site is a Site of Special Scientific Interest which was notified in 1986 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The local planning authority is North Hertfordshire District Council. It is a relic of a large forest which extended from Hitchin to Hatfield.

St Lawrence Church is an eighteenth-century, neoclassical church in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England. It is also known as New St Lawrence Church to distinguish it from the ruined Old St Lawrence Church.