at the War Memorial

The building set back beyond the post box on your right was, 400 years ago, an inn called The Thatched House. It was mentioned by Izaak Walton in his book The Compleat Angler. Like the great majority of inns at the time it brewed its own beer. In 1700 it was bought by William Plomer who started to develop the brewery. Over the next 200 years a succession of owners expanded the brewery until it was one of the largest in the county; known as the Hoddesdon Brewery or Christie’s Brewery it eventually had a tied estate of 163 inns, mostly in Hertfordshire. Brewery buildings occupied the area to the north and east of The Thatched House which by this time had been converted into brewery offices. The brewery was sold and closed in 1928, after which many of the buildings were demolished or converted to other uses, and a public road, Brewery Road, was created through the brewery yard. One old inn that you can see from here is The Bell, a private house in the 16th century but later an inn called The Hollibush, then The Blue Bell and finally The Bell; it is in Burford Street so not strictly part of the High Street scene, but included here to complete the walk.
There are (and were) other inns in Hoddesdon but this walk is mainly concerned with the High Street. More information, photographs and artefacts can be found in Lowewood Museum.