Nettleden

Coordinates: 51°46′46″N 0°32′15″W / 51.77956°N 0.53737°W / 51.77956; -0.53737

Nettleden
Nettleden Church
Nettleden  Nettleden shown within Hertfordshire
Population	53
OS grid reference	TL0110
District	Dacorum
Shire county	Hertfordshire
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BERKHAMSTED
Postcode district	HP4
Police	Hertfordshire
Fire	Hertfordshire
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Hemel Hempstead
List of places: UK • England • Hertfordshire

Nettleden is a village in Hertfordshire, England. It is in the Chiltern Hills, about four miles north west of Hemel Hempstead, surrounded by Little Gaddesden, Great Gaddesden and Frithsden. Nettleden with Potten End is a civil parish in Dacorum District.

The village name of Nettleden is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'valley where nettles grow'. In manorial records of the late Twelfth century the village was recorded as Neteleydene.

Anciently the village was a hamlet in the parish of Pitstone in Buckinghamshire, though the boundary of the hamlet was surrounded by the county of Hertfordshire. Nettleden was transferred from Buckinghamshire to Hertfordshire, and made a parish in its own right, in 1895. The church, St Lawrence, was first mentioned in 1285 when it became a part of the endowment of Ashridge Monastery. The church, except for the tower, was largely rebuilt in brick by John, earl of Bridgewater in 1811. Until 1895 it was a chapelry of Pitstone.

When Nettleden became a parish the hamlet of St Margaret's, formerly belonging to Ivinghoe in Buckinghamshire, was connected to Nettleden. At this place Henry de Blois bishop of Winchester founded the nunnery St Margaret's de Bosco. After the Dissolution in 1539 St Margaret's came in private hands. During the Second World War the St Margaret's Camp was a school for evacuees - children from London and surroundings. Since 1984 it is the place of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery.

Today the village sits in a very attractive location, on the periphery of Ashridge. From Nettleden to Frithsden goes the Roman Lane or Spooky Lane, named after the ghost of an Ashridge monk. In the early 19th century the lane was dug deep in the hill with high revetted walls on both sides and a bridge was built over the lane, in order that people using the driveway leading to Ashridge do not meet the villagers. Another feature of Nettleden is the steep Pipers Hill east of the village.

References

William Page (editor) (1908). "Parishes: Nettleden". A History of the County of Hertford: volume 2. Institute of Historical Research. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43285. Retrieved 27 July 2011. 

External links

• Nettleden (A Guide to Old Hertfordshire)