Long Marston, Hertfordshire

infobox UK place
country = England
latitude=51.83089
longitude= -0.69593
official_name= Long Marston
population=
shire_district= Dacorum
shire_county = Hertfordshire
region= East of England
constituency_westminster= South West Hertfordshire
post_town= Tring
postcode_district = HP23
postcode_area= HP
dial_code= 01296
os_grid_reference= SP899155

Long Marston is a small village to the north of Tring in Hertfordshire, in the Tring Rural parish council area. It is located roughly 5 miles east of Aylesbury and 11 miles north-west of Hemel Hempstead.

The name of the village is likely to derive from 'Mershton', literally Marsh Farm, a reference to its propensity for flooding [http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/books/book0053-placenames.htm] . By 1751 this had developed into the name Long Marcon [http://www.stcross.nildram.co.uk/witch.html] .

Long Marston is also host to a primary school, [http://www.longmarston.herts.sch.uk/ Long Marston JMI] . The school was built after the original school, built during the Victorian era, was bombed during World War Two. The current school, built in 1951, has gradually grown and extended with the village and its population.

Due to transport links improving and more people owning cars, the number of services in Long Marston has slowly diminished. However, two public houses remain and one has also incorporated the local village shop and Post Office to avoid these services being lost completely.

"Straggling crossroads place stuck in the dullish, well-watered flatlands north of Tring. The ruined, ivy-covered flint tower is all that remains of a deserted medieval church - a must for the modern-day follower of the Tour of Dr Syntax (Rowlandson). A new church, uninspired in itself, incorporates fragments of the old - chancel arch and windows - and also the Perpendicular aisle piers from Tring parish church. In the main street are plain cottages, a bit of timber-framing and weather-boarding in good harmony. Some thoughtless new development."In 1751 the village pond was the scene of England's last witch-lynching, when Ruth Osborn, the 'witch', was captured and drowned. One of her tormentors ended up gibbeted at Gubblecote Cross (1/2 m. E.), close to the moated site of a deserted medieval village." [From Hertfordshire (a Shell Guide),R. M. Healey , Faber & Faber, London, 1982]