Aldbury

Coordinates: 51°48′N 0°36′W / 51.80°N 0.60°W / 51.80; -0.60

Aldbury
The stocks and pond at the centre of the village
Aldbury  Aldbury shown within Hertfordshire
OS grid reference	SP9612
Shire county	Hertfordshire
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Police	Hertfordshire
Fire	Hertfordshire
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
List of places: UK • England • Hertfordshire

Aldbury is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, near the borders of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, in a valley close to Ashridge Park. The nearest town is Tring; Tring railway station, 1 mile west, is in the parish of Aldbury. Uphill from the village are the Bridgewater monument and the Ashridge estate.

Aldbury has around 800 inhabitants, a small shop, Garage, and two pubs: The Valiant Trooper and the Greyhound. A troop of Morris men is based here and perform outside both village pubs.

History

Aldbury is a village of the Old English type. In the centre is a green and pond; close by stand stocks and whipping-post, in excellent preservation, a primary school and the Church of Saint John the Baptist. In the days of Edward the Confessor the manor of Aldeberie was held by Alwin, the king’s thegn. The Valiant Trooper has served as an alehouse for several centuries, the first traceable evidence dates back to 1752. The ascent of the wooded slope towards the Bridgewater Monument is one of the most beautiful districts in the county.

Valetta accident

On the 6 January 1954 a Royal Air Force Vickers Valetta twin-engined training aircraft crashed at Tom's Hill just south of the village. Sixteen of the 17 airmen on board were killed.^[1]

Notable buildings

Parish Church

The Church of Saint John the Baptist is of Early English style. The church was restored in 1867, and is notable for the Verney Chapel, separated from the nave by a screen of stone. It contains a monument to Sir Robert Whittingham, who was slain at the battle of Tewkesbury (illustrated below). The church also contains memorials of the Hides and Harcourts, families who left charities to the poor of the parish.

The Valiant Trooper

The parish church at Aldbury, from a 1922 guide to Hertfordshire

Altar tomb and monument to Sir Robert Whittingham and his lady

The 17th century cottages that comprise the Trooper have served as alehouses for several centuries. The first traceable evidence dates back to 1752 when the pub – then known as The Royal Oak – was left in the will of one John Barnes. Its next owner was Isaac Dell Master, whose initials “ID” and the date “1769” can be seen carved in the brickwork alongside the main front window. The name changed to The Trooper Alehouse in 1803 – rumoured to be because the Duke of Wellington met his troops here to discuss tactics. It became The Valiant Trooper in 1878.

It is now run by husband and wife team Beej and Beth Parmar, who describe it as “a real pub with a warm welcome, a down-to-earth attitude, excellent customer service and quality food and beer-–in a relaxed atmosphere.”

Stocks House

The largest house is Stocks House which was the country home of Victor Lownes and the rural base of Playboy UK; and before that home of Mary Augusta Ward, the author of Clinton Magna whose character Bessie Costrell lived in Aldbury.

Parish council

Aldbury Parish Council is the local administrative body and covers Aldbury village itself and the hamlet at Tring Station - in Saxon times, Aldbury lay in Dacorum, one of the Hundreds of Hertfordshire and in 1973, the Dacorum Borough of Hertfordshire was created with Aldbury in it.

Film and television

Aldbury is a popular location for films and television. Among film and television series scenes filmed in the village are:

• Film:
  • 1947: Jassy (the last production by Gainsborough Pictures)
  • 1967: The Dirty Dozen (the scene at the beginning of the training exercise)
  • 1969: Crossplot (last scene)
  • 2004: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the Greyhound pub (including a scene involving fox hunting cut from the cinema release but on DVD)

• Television:
  • 1967: The Avengers, two episodes of the sixties TV series, episode "Dead Man's Treasure" town renamed "Swingingdale" original air date 21 October 1967 (UK). And the complete episode "Murdersville" renamed "Little Storping In-The-Swuff" original air date 11 November 1967 (UK).
  • Inspector Morse, the TV detective series, the pub
  • Shillingbury Tales series, filmed in 1980. The church, churchyard/graveyard and path to the primary school as well as the Greyhound pub also featured in a Dave Allen sketch (the race to the graveyard between two funeral parties)
  • National Lottery, the initial advertisements (despite the fact that the shop was unable to sell tickets at the time)
  • Marchlands TV Drama
  • Midsomer Murders Written In Blood

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aldbury

• Hertfordshire, by Herbert W Tompkins, 2nd Edition, 1922, from Project Gutenberg
• grid reference SP964124
• Aldbury (A Guide to Old Hertfordshire)
• Aldbury Primary School
• Tring Council web site
• The Valiant Trooper web site
• Aldbury locations, from Internet Movie Database
• Aldbury Morris Men
• Aldbury Classic Vehicle Rally
• Dave Allen Funeral Sketch hosted on YouTube
• Aldbury in the Domesday Book