Benington High Wood

Benington Castle is a ruined castle in the village of Benington, near Stevenage in Hertfordshire, England at grid reference TL296236. It has been protected since 1936 as a scheduled monument.A motte-and-bailey castle was built in the late 11th or early 12th century, founded by Peter de Valognes. In 1136, Roger de Valognes built a stone castle with a keep. In 1177, King Henry II ordered that the tower be demolished (slighted). According to historian Sidney Painter it was one of at least 21 castles slighted on the orders of Henry II.In 1192 the castle was in use again. It was finally destroyed in 1212, after Robert Fitzwalter rebelled against King John. Only the foundations of the keep and some earthworks now remain from the original structure.

Aston End is a hamlet in Hertfordshire, England. It is in the civil parish of Aston. It features a pub and a butchers, as well as a few houses.

Aston is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 844, increasing to 871 at the 2011 Census. Located on a ridge between Stevenage and the Beane Valley, Aston is a 10 minutes drive from the A1(M). A mile north of Aston lies Aston End, a hamlet which has strong social and geophysical ties with the village. Hooks Cross, another hamlet in the parish, straddles the A602, Stevenage to Hertford road. Aston has many clubs, societies and interest groups, hosting a successful annual school fete. During the reign of Edward the Confessor (1024–66), the manor of "Estone" was held by three vassals of Stigend, Archbishop of Canterbury. Their names are not known but some land is recorded as that of Wulf the Dane.

Benington is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England, about four miles east of Stevenage and 35 miles north of London.

Aston Bury is a manor house near Aston, Hertfordshire, England. It is Grade I listed building.It was built in the mid 17th century, possibly by the Boteler family, restored in 1883 for Captain William Edward Freeman O'Brien and restored again in 1908-09 for Vernon A. Malcolmson. The house is now a luxury apartment block. The building consists of a long rectangular block in two storeys with cellars and attics and two large gabled stair wings at the rear. The ground floor walls are made of flint, banded with brick and with brick dressings. The first floor has timber framing, infilled and faced with brick. The roof is steep and made of red tiles.

Astonbury Wood is a nature reserve of Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. It is an ancient woodland, near Stevenage in Hertfordshire, England.

Walkern is a village and civil parish in East Hertfordshire, England. It is about two miles (3 km) from Stevenage. The village has several shops, including a convenience store, a hair and beauty salon, a craft shop, a shop that features homestyle products, a tea shop, a drum shop, a petrol station and Walkern Gallery near the White Lion public house. Other pubs include the Yew Tree. The village also has a primary school, doctors' surgery, recreation ground and a range of seasonal clubs; according to the time of year there is cricket, football and many other clubs based in the Walkern Sports and Community Centre towards the end of the village near the War Memorial and opposite a former watermill.

The A602 is a road linking Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England, with A10 at Ware in Hertfordshire, via Stevenage. The course of the road has changed significantly since the 1960s with the construction of several bypasses and relief roads. In Hitchin, the road starts at a junction with the A505, and follows a relief road round the south of the town centre, before re-joining the course of the original route for 0.9 miles (1.4 km). The village of Little Wymondley is bypassed by a dual carriageway route to the A1 junction at Corey's Mill. In Stevenage, the road takes two courses through the town – the first is a concurrency with the A1 round the new town to the junction at Langley Sidings. The second is a route through the town itself, following closely the route of the old Great North Road. The two routes converge and form a northern bypass for the suburb of Broadwater (the old Hertford Road through Broadwater has been closed to motor vehicles since the 1990s, to prevent rat-running). The next 3 km of road is the only remaining original piece of the route, travelling through the villages of Bragbury End and Hooks Cross. The next feature is a roundabout, and the road once again diverges from its original course and takes a left to bypass the village of Watton-at-Stone. At the eastern end of the Watton-at-Stone bypass (constructed in the late 1980s) it reaches another roundabout. In the 1970s, the road continued from this point straight ahead down what is now the A119 to Hertford, and then travelled along the course of what is now the B1197 through Hertford Heath to Hoddesdon. With the opening of the A10 Hoddesdon and Ware bypass in the late 1970s, the A602 temporarily terminated at the A414 in Hertford. In 1987, with the opening of the Tonwell bypass, the road was completely re-routed along the course of the B1001 from Watton-at-Stone to meet the modern A10 at Ware. The B1001 itself remains for a short distance, linking the modern A10 with the old road in the town centre (now known as the A1170).

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin in Walkern, Hertfordshire, dates from before the Norman Conquest and has been altered in the succeeding centuries. The nave retains at least one Anglo-Saxon wall.

Ridlins Mire is a 1.6-hectare (4.0-acre) nature reserve managed by the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England.This wetland site is a type of peat bog. It is the result of a spring, which has resulted in the growth of peat over many years into a domed structure called a rheotrophic hangmire. This is a rare habitat and unique in Hertfordshire. The dominant plants are tussock sedge and marsh marigold. There are birds such as long-tailed tits and great tits, and butterflies including large whites and small tortoiseshells.The site is unfenced on its border with Goddard End, but access is difficult as there is no formal entrance or footpaths.

The Frome Clay is a geological formation in England. It preserves fossils dating back to the Bathonian stage of the Middle Jurassic period.

Stevenage is a constituency in Hertfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Stephen McPartland, a member of the Conservative Party.