Historic Hoddesdon - town centre walk

We start our walk at the Clock Tower

To the north is the Tower Centre which opened in 1967. For its construction, all the properties between Amwell Street and Burford Street as far Woollens Brook were demolished. The northern end of the Tower Centre was redeveloped in 2012. This walk concentrates mainly on the area to the south where many older buildings remain. On the site of the Clock Tower a chapel dedicated to St Catherine was built in 1336. It provided a place of worship for pilgrims making their way from London to Walsingham, until the shrine there was closed at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century. Because Hoddesdon was partly in Broxbourne parish and partly in Great Amwell parish until the 19th century, the chapel was occasionally used as a chapel-of-ease for parishioners unable to get to the parish churches. From the mid-17th century the chapel was no longer used for church services, and in the early 18th century it was altered to become a clock house. In 1835 it was demolished, and the present building, with the addition of rooms surrounding the tower, was built. When major redevelopment of the town centre was carried out in the 1960s these rooms were removed. The canopy was erected in about 2004 giving an indication of the original shape. Cross the road to the War Memorial.

The War Memorial was erected in 1921 and 40 more names were added in 1951.
In this vicinity Hoddesdon’s market cross had stood. Hoddesdon has been a market town since it gained its market charter in 1253. The market cross fell into disrepair and was removed in the late 18th century. The original market cross was probably replaced in the 15th century by Sir John Say, a substantial local landowner, who secured confirmation of Hoddesdon’s charter during disputes with Hertford over the right to hold a market in the area. The drawing shows how the 15th century market cross may have looked; it is based on a sketch on a 16th century map and the discovery of the hexagonal brick foundation in 1826.

Continue south for about 50 yards.

On the left, the shops now Garniers and the Deer Café are two examples of buildings with framing dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. All towns with a long history have a mix of buildings from different centuries. Many examples of old buildings can be seen along the High Street, although their age is not always obvious as most have been altered through the years according to the needs and whims of their owners. Often only surviving fragments such as timber framing or beams give clues to their date of construction. Differences in building styles can more easily be seen by looking above shop front level at the upper floors and roof lines.

To the south of these buildings Hoddesdon’s Market House once stood in the roadway in front of the modern building housing Pet Hut and Poundstretcher .

The Market House was built in 1634 with contributions from the townsfolk, the Earl of Salisbury (who received the market tolls) and Marmaduke Rawdon, a prominent inhabitant. It stood opposite the Bull Inn, with the inn sign spanning the road and fixed to its wall. The Bull was demolished in 1964 to make way for shop premises, currently Peacocks. By the 1830s the market had dwindled to almost nothing and the market house had become decrepit. It was demolished in 1834. A new market for livestock, held on Wednesdays, started in 1886. Over the years it has changed to become a general market. A paving stone in front of Pet Hut, inscribed with the letters ‘BROX and GT. A’ (standing for Broxbourne and Great Amwell), was laid in the 1970s to indicate that Hoddesdon lay within parts of the two parishes until the mid 19th century.

Continue to walk south to timber framed buildings on the left just before you reach Conduit Lane.

The timber framed buildings date from about 1500. In the roadway roughly in line with the southern end of the buildings, a statue was erected in about 1630. Known as the Samaritan Woman, it was the figure of a woman holding an urn. Marmaduke Rawdon, the builder of Rawdon House, provided his house with a piped supply of spring water. Finding he had more than sufficient for his needs, he had a conduit laid to the centre of the town for the use of the public and erected the statue with the water flowing from the urn into a pond. The nearby lane, which had been called Honey Lane, became known as Conduit Lane. In 1826, the statue and pond were replaced by a pump and underground tank. The pump was removed in the years before World War II. Since 1987 the Samaritan Woman statue has been sited beside Lowewood Museum.

Cross Conduit Lane.

The first building south of Conduit Lane dates from the 16th century. For many years it was a hardware shop, Hawards. It was run by W J Haward, a local entrepreneur in the mid 20th century, who had so many different interests in the town’s affairs that he was known as ‘Mr Hoddesdon’.

The next building is Stanboroughs, which was built in the early 17th century. The north wing, from evidence of dated rainwater heads, was added in 1637. Stanboroughs was the home of the Conservative Club from the early 20th century. In 2012 work started on archaeological investigations prior to the building a new clubhouse at the rear and conversion of the building to flats and a restaurant.

The red brick building with a white gable was purpose-built as a Post Office in 1893 by the local building firm, Hunts. Its architect was John Tregelles. He wrote the town’s first local history book called ‘A History of Hoddesdon’, in 1908. The Post Office closed here in 2018 and was re-situated to the Library.

Montague House, no. 68 High Street, red brick with white stone window frames and integral columns, was built in the early 18th century, with no. 70 next door added a little later. Care was taken to use similar materials and architectural features, making an almost symmetrical frontage. John Loudon McAdam, the road-building pioneer, lived at Montague House from 1827 until his death in 1836. There is a blue plaque commemorating him on the building.

The yellow brick house, no. 66, is late 18th century, and is owned by the chef, Gino D’Acampo. The next building, Hogges Hall, contains some remains – shaped beams and a doorway – of a 15th century hall. The name, surviving from an earlier time, may be a corruption of a Saxon or Danish personal name. One suggestion of the origin of the name Hoddesdon is that the first element may be a corruption of Hogge. From the mid-19th century Hogges Hall was the home of the Hunt family, who ran a very successful building business. Their local work included St. Catharine’s Estate in Broxbourne and St Cuthbert’s Church in Rye Park. One member of the family left Hoddesdon to run a stained glass company which produced work nationally, including some local commissions. Examples of their work can be seen in St Catherine & St Paul’s Church and in Hogges Hall itself. The upper lights of the middle landing windows are a set of small stained glass windows called ‘The Heads of Time’.

Continue to the last building before the junction of High Street and Charlton Way.

Rathmore House was built in 1746 by a Quaker businessman, John Borham. His initials and the date in Roman numerals can be seen in the pediment over the door. A succession of doctors practised at Rathmore House from the early 1800s until 1969, and it became known as ‘The Doctors’ House’. One of the earlier doctors was William Gosse, who emigrated to Australia in 1850. One of his sons, William Christie Gosse became a land surveyor and explorer. He gave the great red rock, Uluru, its English name of Ayers Rock, after the Governor of South Australia, Henry Ayers. 15 Cross the road by the lights and turn right.

Turn and continue north towards the town centre to Fawkon Walk.

The Fawkon Walk shopping precinct dates from 1967. The name, a corruption of ‘falcon’, the bird of prey, comes from an inn on the site called the Fawkon on the Hoop, Hoddesdon’s earliest known inn. A later inn, the George or St George, was demolished for the building of the Congregational Church. William Ellis, who as a young man had been a missionary in the South Seas and Hawaii, moved to Hoddesdon in 1841. Ellis became pastor of the Congregationalists and set about fund-raising for the building of a new church, which opened in 1847. Although Hoddesdon remained his family home, Ellis returned to missionary work for some years later in life. He was a skilled gardener and orchid grower, discovering rare specimens during missions to Madagascar. The Congregational Church was demolished along with other buildings for the construction of Fawkon Walk.

Continue north to reach Lord Street.

The building on the north corner of Lord Street was built in 1882 by members of the Warner family as a coffee tavern. The Warners were Quakers and they supported the Temperance movement. Coffee taverns gave out tokens which could be exchanged for soup or coffee in the hope of encouraging would-be drinkers away from the town’s many pubs. The building later became a temperance hotel. Vents from the kitchens can still be seen in the wall facing Lord Street.

Continue past the White Swan to the white-fronted building comprising 3 shops which has internal timber framing dating from the 16th century. In front of no. 99, Ripleys Butchers shop, is a cobbled forecourt. The premises had been a smithy for over 200 years up to the mid-20th century. The cobbles gave extra purchase for the horses’ hooves.

Walk past The Star and on to Myddleton House (nos. 113-116 High Street), which was built about 1600. It may have been the home of William Myddleton, a relative of Sir Hugh Myddleton who built the New River, but it does not seem that Sir Hugh himself lived in Hoddesdon. The building was an inn for a period and in the late 19th century was the home of Charles Augustus Christie, one of the sons of the owner of Christie’s brewery which stood opposite. Myddleton House became the home and surgery of GPs Dr Love and then Dr West, who eventually re-located to Rathmore House. Used as shops from the 1930s, Myddleton House was extended to the north in about 2000.

Continue north and turn left into Paul’s Lane. Walk up Paul’s Lane for about 30 yards and cross towards the church.

On the left, a large rectangular stone lies in the grass. It is a copy of the foundation stone of the Girls’ National School which stood in the vicinity. National Schools were Church of England charity schools. This school was erected in 1858, and Hoddesdon’s first charity school, Mrs Easter Jones’ girls’ school in Amwell Street, founded in 1818, was moved here. The building was demolished in the 1970s. Beyond the foundation stone is one of the church halls, which was originally the Infants’ National School.
The church of St Catherine & St Paul has been built in different stages. The eastern end, which faces Amwell Street, is 19th century; the western end was constructed as a private chapel in 1732. When Hoddesdon became a parish in the mid-19th century, this chapel was adopted as the parish church. The church was enlarged in 1865, and the tower was added in 1887. Originally known as St Catherine’s, it was dedicated to St. Paul in 1901, and re-dedicated to St. Catherine & St Paul in 1976.

Follow the path half-right past the western, older, end of the church to the exit leading to Hanover Court. On the right is a raised grave with an embossed cross on the top. This is the grave of Harriet Auber, who died in 1882. She wrote many hymns, the best known of which, ‘Our Blest Redeemer’, was, for lack of writing materials to hand, first scratched on to a window pane of her home in Amwell Street, which stood opposite the church. Retrace your steps past the west end of the church, walk between the church halls into Paul’s Lane, and turn right.

The building on the right has a porch with a stone tablet over the door, stating ‘National School 1844’. The school was the Boys’ National School, promoted by Hoddesdon’s first vicar, Reverend William Morice. When the building became a church hall it was named Barclay Hall in commemoration of Robert Barclay of High Leigh, a benefactor to the town.

Turn back up Pauls Lane to Amwell Street and turn right to return to the Clock Tower.