place

Mardley Heath

Local Nature Reserves in HertfordshireWelwyn
Mardley Heath Picnic Area geograph.org.uk 486680
Mardley Heath Picnic Area geograph.org.uk 486680

Mardley Heath is a 41.1 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Welwyn in Hertfordshire. It is owned by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council and managed by the council together with the Friends of Mardley Heath.In the Middle Ages Mardley Heath was common land, used by villagers for collecting fuel and grazing their animals. By the middle of the nineteenth century most of it had been enclosed, and in the mid twentieth it was used for gravel extraction. In 1967 it was acquired by the Rural District of Welwyn, and it is now managed for public recreation and maintaining the diversity of the woodland on the site. The heathland has regenerated since the gravel extraction ceased, and the oak and hornbeam woodland remains.There is a car park on Heath Road.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Mardley Heath (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Mardley Heath
Welwyn Hatfield

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Mardley HeathContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.8494 ° E -0.1925 °
placeShow on map

Address


AL6 0TP Welwyn Hatfield
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Mardley Heath Picnic Area geograph.org.uk 486680
Mardley Heath Picnic Area geograph.org.uk 486680
Share experience

Nearby Places

Lockleys Roman Villa

Lockleys Roman Villa is a ruined Roman villa on the Lockleys estate near Welwyn, Hertfordshire. The site was excavated in 1937. This is one of two known villas near Welwyn, the other being Dicket Mead. The excavations uncovered five phases of a Roman farmhouse that flourished from the first to the fourth century AD. The earliest remains date into the first century AD and belong to a round hut, about 4 meter in diameter. Over the hut was found a thick layer of humus that indicates a next building phase. No architectural remains were found, but the excavator assumes that there was a timber building at this place. From about AD 60-70 comes the third building phase. The house was now totally rebuilt in stone. It was oriented North-South and consisted of a row of three bigger rooms, with two smaller rooms on the North side. Around AD 150 the villa was heavily enlarged. On the west side was added a veranda with additional rooms on either short end of the veranda. Due to ploughing the floors of the rooms were never preserved, making it hard for the archaeologist to find datable material in context with the floors In the early fourth century the building was devastated by a fire. After the fire, the house was for a while not rebuilt. Around AD 330 a new villa was erected, ignoring the old walls. Only parts of the new villa were found showing that it was a square house with several rooms, built over the south end of the older structures. At the end of the fourth century, the villa was abandoned.

Digswell
Digswell

Digswell is an ancient village and former parish in the English county of Hertfordshire which is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book. The population of the urban area of Digswell in the 2011 Census was 1,632.Digswell's name may be derived from Deacon's Well. There were two manors, with two water mills, much land under plough, and a large area of woodland. From 1835 the parish of Digswell was included in the Welwyn Poor Law Union, and from 1894 the parish was part of the Welwyn Rural District. The 1911 census recorded the parish of Digswell as covering 1,674 acres (677 hectares) and having a population of 401. The small village of Digswell comprised the parish church of St John the Evangelist (13th century, much altered), the 19th century Digswell House (built on the site of a much earlier residence) and a few nearby houses. There were other small hamlets in the parish, notably at Digswell Water on the River Mimram. The parish of Digswell also included Welwyn railway station which opened in 1850 on the Great Northern Railway to serve the village of Welwyn, just over a mile to the west of the station. In the early 20th century an area called "High Welwyn" began to develop around the railway station.On 30 May 1919 part of the estate once belonging to Lord Cowper of Panshanger was bought at auction by a group of pioneers of the Garden City Movement including Ebenezer Howard. Adjoining land was purchased later that year, and a company called Welwyn Garden City Limited was formed on 20 April 1920 with the aim of building a new garden city. The land earmarked for the town straddled the parishes of Hatfield, Welwyn, Tewin and Digswell. A new civil parish called Welwyn Garden City was created on 1 October 1921 from parts of these four parishes. Digswell parish ceded 934 acres (378 hectares) to the new parish, representing over half its area, with the transferred territory including the original Digswell village. The remaining Digswell parish was left covering the area broadly north of the Mimram, with the main population centre being the High Welwyn area that was growing up around the station. The station was renamed Welwyn North in 1926, following the opening of a new permanent station for Welwyn Garden City to the south. High Welwyn gradually also became known as Digswell. The civil parish of Digswell was finally abolished in 1935, merging with the neighbouring parish of Welwyn on 1 April 1935. In 1931 the parish had a population of 644.The Digswell Viaduct, designed by William Cubitt and opened in 1850, carries the Great Northern Railway over the valley of the River Mimram (River Maran) on some 40 brick arches, reaching 100 feet (30 m) above ground level. The residential workshop for sculptors, artists and musicians sponsored by the Digswell Arts Trust, was once located in Digswell House. Part of the southern Parish Boundary Baulk (raised bank) between the ecclesiastical parishes of Digswell and Hatfield may still be seen in Sherrardspark Wood, a local woodland, nature reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest.(5) Much of Digswell is now part of the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. The area known as Digswell today is the largely residential area centred on Welwyn North station. It has a population of about 1600, with a shop or two, and a pub called the Cowper Arms. Notable past residents here include Kenneth Allsop, Alan Brazil, Ron Pickering, Graham Richard James, the police reformer Sir Arthur Young, H.G. Wells and American actor Barry Chapman. When first developed, this residential area was known as "High Welwyn" before later taking on the name of the old parish on the south side of the nearby Hertford Road.