Buntingford, Hertfordshire

Historical Description

Buntingford, a union town in Herts. It stands on the river Rib, 10 miles N from Ware and 7 S from Royston. The terminal station of the Ware and Buntingford branch of the G.E.R. is about half a mile S of the town. It is in the parishes of Aspenden, Layston, Throcking, and Wyddial, is the head of a petty sessional division, and has a head post, money order, and telegraph office. The parish of Layston, which includes the greater part of the town, formerly had an area of 2203 acres, but by the Parish Boundaries Act this was reduced to 1434. Population of Buntingford, 1408. The parish church of Layston is an edifice of flint in the Early English and Perpendicular styles. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St. Albans, with the chapelry of Buntingford annexed; gross yearly value, £167. There is a chapel of ease, erected in 1614-26, and there are Congregational and Particular Baptist chapels. The town formerly had a weekly market, but this has been given up; it has still a yearly fair, which is held 29 June. Layston House and Corney Bury are chief residences.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Buntingford from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Buntingford)

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Hertfordshire is online.

Maps

Online maps of Buntingford are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Hertfordshire newspapers online:

• Hertford Mercury and Reformer
• Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser
• Watford Observer

Visitations Heraldic

The Visitations of Hertfordshire, 1572 and 1634. Edited by Walter C. Metcalfe, F.S.A. is available on the Heraldry page.