Ideas to Spend a Day in the County of Hertfordshire, UK

We had the pleasure of enjoying a 2 week house sit in 2017 in an area about 30 minutes north of London by train. The location was between the towns of Luton and Hitchin and all in the county of Hertfordshire. Hitchin and St. Albans are great places to explore and get to know 🙂

We hired a rental car because it was a more rural place and the roads were so narrow in places you would have to pull over when passing by another car. The countryside was beautiful and tranquil.

Hitchin

• We went to Hitchin on a Saturday while the traditional market was going on (comparative to a flea market). You have to plan accordingly due to the market only being open certain days of the week.
• A major site here is St. Mary’s Church which is the parish church in town and the present one standing dates back to the 14th and 15th centuries.
  

  St. Maryś Church

• Walking along a little further you will find the lively Hitchin Town Square with a diversity of independent businesses to suit anything you could need. The market itself is located right by here as well.

We only had a couple of hours here to explore but it’s a cute town worth seeing.

*Quick Lesson*:

• Here’s a quick lesson about hamlets, villages, towns and cities that we learned from our native English Trusted housesitter host.
  • Hamlets have no church
  • Villages have one church
  • Towns can have more than one church and a market, but not a cathedral
  • Cities have a cathedral

Whew… so now that we have that all figured out.

St. Albans

• Another quick day trip takes us to St. Albans “city.” This city has loads of Roman history with remains dating all the way back to almost 2000 years ago. We walked through a park to reach the Roman Walls of St. Albans. These walls were built to protect the Roman city of Verulamium during its time.

• St. Albans Clock Tower was built in the 1400’s and is today the only medieval town belfry in England! It’s located right in the heart of the city and certain times of the year you can climb the stairs to the top for a cheap fee.

• St. Albans cathedral was a sight to see and is named after Alban which was Britain’s first saint and martyr. The church was first constructed as a medieval abbey church for monks, later was restored in the 1800’s, and is fully functioning today. Some parts of the cathedral were under construction and there was a funeral service going on when we went but we still saw majority of it.

We ended the day by enjoying the menu item “cream tea” in a cafe beside the cathedral called St. Albans Cafe which included a buttered scone, jam, clotted cream and a pot of tea of course 🙂

Would you be willing to visit any of these places?