Part 13

Collier's End is on high ground, on the Old North Road, 2 miles S.W. from Standon Station, G.E.R. It is a very typical English hamlet.

COLNE, river. (See Introduction.)

COLNEY HEATH (1 mile S. from Smallford Station, G.N.R.) is an ecclesiastical parish. The brick church (1844) is in Byzantine style; it has an apsidal chancel, and small N. porch and tower. The new West Herts County Asylum is close by.

COLNEY STREET, on the main road from Radlett to St. Albans, forms an almost equilateral triangle with Park Street and Bricket Wood Stations, L.&N.W.R. It is only a few minutes' walk from the pretty church at Frogmore (q.v.).

Common Moor may be visited from Croxley Green (3/4 mile N.E. from Rickmansworth) for an inspection of its large paper mill.

Cooter's End is a tiny hamlet close to the M.R. on the Bedfordshire border.

Corey's Mill, a hamlet 1 mile N. from Stevenage Station, G.N.R., is named from an old mill, burnt in 1878.

COTTERED (3 miles W. from Buntingford) has a fine old church (Perp.). There is a chapel on the N. side of the chancel erected by Edward Pulter; the W. tower is embattled and carries a lofty spire. Several memorials to the Pulter and Forester families are of the seventeenth century. The church was restored in 1886. In the days of William I. the vill of Chodrei belonged to Walchelin, Bishop of Winchester. Cottered Lordship, a farmhouse near the village, is one of the very oldest dwellings in the county. The writer is assured by an expert that the front door dates from 1450-80!

Cromer, a hamlet 5 miles S.W. from Buntingford, is prettily situated in a valley, in a purely agricultural district.

Cromer Hyde (11/2 mile S. from Ayot Station, G.N.R.) consists of a farmhouse, the Chequer's Inn, and a few old and picturesque cottages. The nearest church is 1/2 mile S.E. at the corner of Brocket Hall Park.

Croxley Green (3/4 mile N.E. from Rickmansworth) is an ecclesiastical parish near the river Chess. The church, built fifty years ago, is late E.E. in style and has some good memorial windows.

Cuffley is a small hamlet about midway between Cheshunt and Potter's Bar (Middlesex) Stations, but a little N. from the straight line. The Church of St. James at Goff's Oak (q.v.) is 1 mile E.

Cumberlow Green is 4 miles N.W. from Buntingford.

Currants Bottom, on the Bucks border, is close to Chorley Wood Station, Met.R.

Dane End, or Munden Street, is 4 miles S.W. from Standon Station, G.E.R. The nearest church (1/2 mile N.) is at Little Munden.

Dane End, 4 miles S. from Royston, is close to the Old North Road. There are a few cottages and two farms.

Dassells is a hamlet on the Old North Road, 1 mile E. from Westmill Station, G.E.R. The little river Quin flows close by.

DATCHWORTH (11/2 mile S.E. from Knebworth Station, G.N.R.) has a church with some Norman portions. Its spire is conspicuous for miles round. The larger portion is, however, Dec. Note (1) some good stained glass windows in chancel; (2) chalice dated 1630. The church was restored in 1869-70. The place is very ancient; we read that four hides of land at Decewyrth were granted by an early Saxon king to the Monastery of St. Peter at Westminster, and that in the reign of Edward III. Thomas de la Mere, Abbot of St. Albans, transferred the patronage of this church to the king.

Dean End (3/4 mile S. from Redbourn Station, M.R.) is a small hamlet.

Delamore End is 1/2 mile E. from Flamstead, and near the high road to Dunstable. The nearest railway station is Redbourn, 21/2 miles S.E.

Digswell, a village on the river Maran, is 1/2 mile S.W. from Welwyn Station, G.N.R. Looking E. the visitor will notice the Great Northern Viaduct over the Maran Valley--a truly magnificent structure of forty arches. The church, beautifully situated on the hill, is E.E. It contains a large but much mutilated brass to John Perient, Master of the Horse to Joan of Navarre and Esquire to Richard II., Henry IV. and Henry V. This interesting inscription being much defaced I will transcribe from Chauncy: "Hic jacet Johannes Perient, Armiger pro corpore Regis Richardi Secundi, et Penerarius ejusdem Regis, et Armiger. Regis Henrici Quarti, et Armiger etiam Regis Henrici Quinti et Magister Equitum Johannae, filiae Regis Navarr, et Regiae Angliae qui obiit--et Johanna uxor ejus quondam capitalis Domicilla--quae obiit 24 Aprilis Anno Dom. 1415." Note also brasses (1) to John Perient, son of the above (d. 1442); (2) William Robert, auditor of the diocese of Winchester (d. 1484); (3) to a civilian, his wife, and ten children (circa 1530); (4) to Thomas Hoore, a mercer of London, his wife, and twelve children. The church was restored in 1872.

Digswell Water is a hamlet 1/2 mile E. from Digswell Church, and close to Welwyn Station.

Down Green is 1/2 mile W. from Wheathampstead Station, G.N.R.

Driver's End, a hamlet 2 miles W. from Knebworth Station, G.N.R., is on the S.W. confines of Knebworth Park. One mile S. is the village of Codicote. The neighbourhood is very pleasant.

Dudswell, a few cottages on the Grand Junction Canal, is 1/2 mile N.W. from Northchurch village, and 2 miles N.W. from Berkhampstead Station, L.&N.W.R.

East End (1 mile S.E. from Cole Green Station, G.N.R.) is between Panshanger Park and the River Lea. There is also a hamlet of the same name on the Essex border, about 5 miles N.E. from Braughing Station, G.E.R.

EASTWICK (1 mile N.W. from Burnt Mill Station, G.E.R.) is a parish near the Essex border, on the river Stort. The church, rebuilt in 1873, is in E.E. style. It is locally famous for its recumbent statue of a knight in chain armour, resting on a raised slab; the legs are crossed. There is neither date nor name; but it has been surmised (1) that the crossing of the legs shows that he was probably a crusader, (2) that the effigy dates from early in the thirteenth century and represents a member of the De Toni or De Ros family. The former conjecture is undoubtedly erroneous. There is a piscina in the chancel.

ELSTREE, formerly Idlestree, is a large village beautifully situated on the Middlesex border; the station (M.R.) is to the N.E. at Boreham Wood. At the N. end of the street a fine view stretches in the direction of Radlett and St. Albans. The Church of St. Nicholas was founded by the Benedictine monks of St. Albans in the fourteenth century; the present structure is Dec. and dates from 1853. The monuments are unimportant; but the wrought-iron chancel screen, designed by Sir A. W. Blomfield, is worthy of careful scrutiny, as is also the vestry screen of carved oak. The five-light E. window was presented by the pupil of a former rector, John Morris, D.D. (d. 1848), to whom it is a memorial. In the old churchyard, closed some years ago, was buried the notorious robber and reputed murderer William Weare, who was murdered by Thurtell on Gill's Hill, 21/2 miles N.W., in 1823. Here, too, was buried Martha Reay, whose life was a chronicle of crime; she was mistress to the Earl of Sandwich, and was killed on leaving Covent Garden Theatre, in 1779. There is excellent fishing to be had at Elstree Reservoir, a little W., in Aldenham parish. Some archaeologists have thought that the Roman city Sulloniacae occupied (approximately) the site on which Elstree stands, and Norden lent his authority to this hypothesis; but there is little doubt that Brockley Hill near Edgware more closely corresponds in position with the city mentioned in the Itinerary of Antoninus.