Bayford, Hertfordshire

Historical Description

Bayford, a village and a parish in Hertfordshire, on the river Lea, 3 miles SSW of Hertford, which is the nearest railway station. It has a post office under Hertford; money order and telegraph office, Little Berkhampstead. Acreage, 1853; population, 349. The manor belonged, before the Conquest, to Earl Tosti the Dane, and passed afterwards to the Knightons, the Fanshaws, and the Bakers. Bayfordbury, the present seat of the Bakers, contains the portraits of the Kit-Cat Club, brought hither from Barnes-Elms. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans, and till 1867 was annexed to Essendon; net value, £180 with residence. The church, a cruciform building in the Early English style, was built in 1870, at the sole cost of William Robert Baker, Esq., of Bayfordbury. In the churchyard is buried William Yarrell, author of the "History of British Birds."

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.

Church Records

Findmypast, in association with the Hertfordshire Archives & Local Studies have the Baptisms, Banns, Marriages, and Burials online for Bayford

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Bayford from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Bayford 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.