UK books and maps

Hertfordshire Street Atlas (A-Z Street Atlas)

Price: £8.36

Publication: 8 April 2013 [Spiral-Bound]

   

Philip's Street Atlas Hertfordshire

Philip's Street Atlas Hertfordshire gives comprehensive and detailed coverage of the county. The route planner shows all the A and B roads, and can be used when driving to get close to the destination before turning to the relevant large-scale street map. The street maps show every named road, street and lane very clearly, with major roads picked out in colour. The maps are at a standard scale of 3.5 inches to 1 mile, and show postcode boundaries. Other information on the maps includes car parks, railway and bus stations, post offices, schools, colleges, hospitals, police and fire stations, places of worship, leisure centres, footpaths and bridleways, camping and caravan sites, golf courses, and many other places of interest. Also included are fixed single and multiple speed-camera locations, with corresponding speed limits. The comprehensive index lists street names and postcodes, plus schools, hospitals, railway stations, shopping centres and other such features picked out in red, with other places of interest shown in blue.

Price: £8.75

Publication: 5 Aug 2013 [Spiral-Bound]

   

Architecture and Image-building in Seventeenth-century Hertfordshire (Oxford Historical Monographs)

The seventeenth century witnessed a radical and far-reaching transformation in English architecture, as new and purer forms of classical design became firmly established, sweeping away earlier fashions. How this dramatic change came about at local level has never been fully understood. Using Hertfordshire as a case-study, this ground-breaking, interdisciplinary book reconstructs the complete built landscape-not just houses but churches, momnnuments, and almshouses-to reveal a competitive and visually sensitive environment in which people at all social levels exploited architectural display to enhance their personal image. New fashions were an important weapon in this struggle. Because only the county elite possessed the necessary contacts and resources to obtain the latest classical designs, such patterns became badges of status, symbols not just of cultural aspirations but of social ambition. Paul Hunneyball demonstrates that classical architecture caught on at local level less because it was aesthetically superior than because its advocates were socially superior.

Price: £87.55

Publication: January 8, 2004 [Hardcover]

   

Hertfordshire Murders (Sutton True Crime History)

In spite of its small size and rural character Hertfordshire has been the location for some of the most infamous and fiendish murders in the history of England. Spanning four centuries, this title contains accounts of many of these crimes, including several never included in a book before. The book draws largely from unused archive material. Among the murders included are the attempt to murder Charles II by a group of renegade publicans, the murder of a reputed witch by an angry village mob and the story of John Thurtell who shot the regency buck William Ware over gambling debts. His execution attracted a crowd of 20,000. Also featured is the last woman to be executed in Hertfordshire - she murdered her sister, an inmate in a lunatic asylum, and the unsolved murder of Ann Noblett whose frozen corpse was discovered in the middle of summer.


Price: £12.99

Publication: November 13, 2003

   

Hertfordshire: A Landscape History

More than three decades after the publication of Lionel Munby's seminal work The Hertfordshire Landscape, Anne Rowe and Tom Williamson have produced an authoritative new study, based on their own extensive fieldwork and documentary investigations, as well as on the wealth of new research carried out over recent decades by others - both into Hertfordshire specifically, and into landscape history and archaeology more generally. The authors examine in detail the historical processes that created the county's modern physical environment, discussing such things as the form and location of settlements; the character of fields, woods and commons; and the distinctive local forms of churches, vernacular houses, and great mansions, along with their associated parks and gardens. Both the rural landscape and that of Hertfordshire's towns and suburbs have their particular stories to tell, and the book reveals how the landscape is itself an important source of information about the past. The great diversity of Hertfordshire's landscapes makes it a particularly rewarding county to study. Dividing the county into four broad regions - the 'champion' countryside in the north, the Chiltern dip slope to the west, the fertile boulder clays of the east and the heavy, unwelcoming London Clay in the south - the authors show how, in the course of the middle ages, natural characteristics influenced the development of land use and settlement to create a range of distinctive landscapes. Change was small-scale and piecemeal and the development of the medieval environment organic and gradual. The authors argue that even the layout of the county's medieval towns was usually the consequence of gradual growth, rather than of deliberate 'planning'. Variations in farming economies, in patterns of trade and communication, as well as in the extent of London's influence, all added to this variety in the course of the post-medieval centuries, and the authors track Hertfordshire's continuing evolution right through to the twenty-first century. Lavishly illustrated with maps and photographs, this authoritative work will be invaluable reading for all those with an interest in the history, archaeology, and natural history of this fascinating county.


Price: £18.99

Publication: 1 Jun 2013 [Illustrated] [Paperback]

   

Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)

Although so close to London this is still a rural area, with quiet country churches with fine monuments, timber-framed farmhouses, and some splendid country houses, of which the most celebrated is Cecil's Jacobean Hatfield House. At St Albans the remains of Roman Verulamium and the great early Norman abbey speak eloquently of older civilizations. The towns offer intriguing contrasts: Hertford, Bishop's Stortford and Hitchin still have the character of traditional market centres, while the new towns of Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield are important exemplars of planning ideals of the 1950s and 60s.

Price: £18.75

Publication: 1 Jan 1977

   

Cycle Tours Chilterns, Hertfordshire & Essex: 20 Rides on Quiet Lanes and Off-road Trails

This spiral-bound guide describes 20 wonderful bike rides in the countryside to the north and west of London. The area offers some excellent and varied cycling: from the challenges of the steep wooded escarpment of the Chilterns in the west to the gentle gradients on networks of quiet lanes in Hertfordshire and north Essex. The book contains 15 road rides (24-35 miles long) and five offroad rides on bridleways and byways (15-21 miles long). All of the rides are highlighted on Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50,000 mapping, seen as the gold standard of mapping for cyclists. Junction-by-junction route instructions guide you from village to village through the region's beautiful rolling countryside. Each ride contains details of distance, grade of difficulty and refreshments along the way (with phone numbers of pubs and cafes so that you can check on opening hours). A height profile gives you warning of any hills to expect and schematic maps show how the ride can either be shortened or linked to adjacent rides for a longer day out. The Chilterns rise to over 800ft (245mts) at several points along the escarpment as it runs northeast from the River Thames at Goring towards Dunstable and Luton. Three of the five offroad rides use the fine stone-based tracks that weave their way through the area's famous beech woodlands which often form a great green tree cathedral overhead. Three of the road rides also explore the Chiltern woodlands, one from Princes Risborough and two around Tring. East of the Chilterns the rides make use of the network of quiet lanes that criss-cross this gently rolling, predominantly arable landscape. Small villages of thatched and half-timbered houses seem to vie with each other for the splendour of their village signs, often intricately carved and painted. The easiest ride in the book follows the Lee Navigation south from Hertford to Limehouse Basin in London: the towpath is one of the best in the whole country.

Price: £12.99

Publication: 1 Jun 2011 [Paperback]

   

Hertfordshire (AA 50 Walks Series)

Walking is one of Britain's favourite leisure activities, and this guide features a variety of mapped walks to suit all abilities. The book features all the practical detail you need, accompanied by fascinating background reading on the history and wildlife of Hertfordshire, as well as other local points of interest. All walks are annotated with places to visit along the way, including tea rooms and pubs, with extra details on their character and the food on offer. Every walk is given a summary of distance, time, gradient, level of difficulty, type of surface and access, landscape, dog friendliness, parking and public toilets.

Price: £7.99

Publication: 28 Feb 2009 [Paperback]

   

Kiddiwalks in Hertfordshire

Especially designed for children, the walks in this book include routes in Whippendale Wood near Watford, in Amwell Natur Reserve, at Oughton Head near Hitchin and Verulamium in St. Albans. In full colour and with maps and photgraphs.

Price: £6.80

Publication: 6 May 2010 [Illustrated] [Paperback]

   

Pathfinder Hertfordshire & Bedfordshire: Walks (Pathfinder Guide)

Both counties tend to be underrated by walkers, often overlooked in favour of the delights of the Thames Valley or the hillier Chiltern country of Buckinghamshire. But they do possess much fine walking country, with a diversity of terrain, gentle hilly regions, lots of pleasant woodland, attractive riverside landscapes and an impressive collection of pretty villages. There are a large number of country parks, especially in Bedfordshire, which make excellent starting points for walks in the local countryside, linking up with the public footpath network. Both Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire have an extensive network of well-maintained rights of way and a large number of well-waymarked recreational footpaths. Routes include explorations along the Greensand Ridge Walk, the Icknield Way Path, the Ouse Valley Way, the Lea Valley Walk, as well as the Grand Union Canal Walk, the Bunyan Trail and a part of the Chiltern way.

Price: £8.39

Publication: 1 May 2008

   

The Hertfordshire Way: A Waymarked Long-distance Footpath

Price: £9.59

Publication: 1 July 2005 [Paperback]

   

Walks into History Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire (Historic Walks)

A collection of walks exploring the history of the three counties. The guide includes routes at Woburn, Dunstable and Bromham in Bedfordshire; Taplow, Claydon and West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire; and Knebworth, St Albans and Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire.

Price: £6.96

Publication: June 15, 2004