Stevenage (St. Nicholas)
The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £33. 6. 8., and in the gift of William Baker, Esq.: the tithes have been commuted for £1023. 7.; there is a glebe-house, and the glebe comprises 26½ acres. The church is situated on a chalky eminence about half a mile from the town, approached by a fine avenue of trees, and is a neat well-built edifice, with a square tower surmounted by a spire covered with lead; attached to the chancel are two small chapels. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans. The Rev. Thomas Alleyn, in 1558, devised all his estates to Trinity College, Cambridge, in trust for charitable uses, among which was the founding of a grammar school at Stevenage, with an annual income of £13. 6. 8. Shortly after the testator's demise, a free English school was established by the inhabitants of Stevenage, which was endowed with some land by Robert Gynne in 1614, and a rent-charge of £12 by Edmond Woodward in 1659; and this school was eventually placed under the master of the grammar school: the total income is £37. 6. 8. A national school has been founded; and there are various bequests, amounting to about £50 per annum, distributed among the poor. The six barrows supposed to give name to the town have been generally referred to the Danes, several battles having been fought between them aud the Saxons in this county, and some fields at the distance of about three-quarters of a mile still retaining the name of Danes' Blood. In a wood half a mile eastward from the barrows, called Humbley Wood, are the apparent remains of an intrenched camp, or fortification, consisting of a large and perfectly square area, surrounded by a deep moat containing water, with only one entrance on the north side. Richard de Stevenage, abbot of St. Alban's at the Dissolution, was a native of this place.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.