The secrets of England’s most ‘liveable’ county

According to a new study by estate agent Savills four of the top 10 most desirable British towns to live in are in Hertfordshire including, at number one, Harpenden.

But for how long?

Over half of Hertfordshire’s land area is designated as green belt while much of the rest is farmland. And therein lies the problem. Farmland and the green belt are now considered by the Government to be ripe for the development of solar farms and housing.

Hertfordshire is already populous, the fourth smallest English county by land area but the seventh most crowded, its population swelled by a regular flow of Londoners drawn to the county by the fresh air, beautiful scenery, desirable towns and lower rents. Despite this, Hertfordshire remains pleasantly rural, dotted with a handful of historic market towns, some of England’s prettiest villages and stateliest of homes and an abundance of gently rolling countryside. For now.

The county has managed to preserve its rural character by maintaining a clear distinction between the built environment of its towns and villages and the surrounding countryside, with each urban area girdled by its own carefully managed green spaces and open land.

Alas, these green spaces may soon be filled in, turning the county into one vast sprawl, and the individual character of Hertfordshire’s historic towns and villages will be lost.

It’s easy to see why Harpenden is so desired, with its wide, airy gorse-clad common bordered by handsome Georgian houses, broad high street with gardens running along either side, timbered cottages and old inns. The town’s cultural centre is named after Harpenden’s favourite son, comedian Eric Morecambe, who lived there with his family from the 1960s until his death in 1984. His ashes are scattered in the garden of remembrance of St Nicholas parish church and there is a memorial plaque on the church wall to John Eric Bartholomew, his real name.

A couple of miles north-east of Harpenden, strung out along a warren of narrow country lanes, is the delightfully eccentric village of Ayot St Lawrence, renowned for its two churches, one a romantic creeper-covered 12th-century ruin, the other a Palladian Greek revival temple built as a replacement for squire Sir Lionel Lyde in 1778. There’s also the 500-year-old Brocket Arms, complete with stone-flagged floors and enormous inglenook fireplace, and Shaw’s Corner, an Arts and Crafts villa that was home to the playwright George Bernard Shaw from 1906 until his death in 1950. Now owned by the National Trust, the house is preserved exactly as Shaw left it. A highlight is Shaw’s revolving writing hut in the garden, named “London” so that unwanted visitors could be told he was away in the capital.

Chorleywood, the fourth most desirable town in Britain, according to Savills, has form – 20 years ago it was rated the happiest place in the UK. Close to London but not of London, it is really more a group of scattered communities nestling on the edge of the Chilterns and gathered around a delightfully spacious common. Chorleywood’s reputation as a welcoming place dates from the 17th century when the villagers gave sanctuary to persecuted Quakers and Non-conformists, including William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania who, on April 4, 1672, married Gulielma Springett at King John’s Farm, a venerable old house still standing on Berry Lane, south of the common.

Berkhamsted, Britain’s ninth most desirable town, grew up along the Roman Akeman Street, a key strategic route through the Chilterns between London and the Midlands. North of the high street are the impressive earthworks of Berkhamsted’s rare double-moated Norman motte-and-bailey castle, built to guard the valley. It was here, in December 1066, that the last Saxon king Edgar Atheling submitted to William the Conqueror after the Battle of Hastings. The long high street, hemmed in by hills, is lined with a host of interesting buildings of all ages including, at No 173, the oldest jettied timber-framed building in Britain, dating from 1277. The Grand Union Canal follows the high street through the valley and there are good walks along its towpath.

North of Berkhamsted is the Ashridge Estate, 5,000 acres of ancient oak and beechwood, chalk downlands and open common belonging to Ashridge House, built to the designs of James Wyatt for the 7th Earl of Bridgewater in 1817 and considered one of the finest examples of early Gothic Revival architecture in the country. The house is currently occupied by a business school but the estate is run by the National Trust and open to all.

Below the estate is the much photographed village of Aldbury. The tiny village green, complete with stocks, duckpond and beautifully timbered 16th-century Old Manor House in the background, forms a perfect picture of quintessential Olde England.

Finally, at number 10 on the most desirable list, is the undoubted jewel in Hertfordshire’s crown, the magnificent city of St Albans laid out around the great Norman abbey on the hill overlooking the remains of the Roman city of Verulamium in the fields below. The abbey, now a cathedral, replaced a Saxon abbey built above the shrine of Britain’s first Christian martyr St Alban, a Roman soldier put to death for sheltering a Christian priest. The massive square tower of the abbey, constructed largely of Roman bricks salvaged from Verulamium, was completed in 1115 and at 144ft high vies with that of Tewkesbury Abbey as the tallest Norman tower in Britain. The abbey nave is the longest in Britain, at 279ft.

An even older church, 10th-century Saxon St Michael’s, sits on the site of Verulamium’s basilica and, like the abbey tower, was built using Roman bricks. Buried here beneath a fine memorial by Nicholas Stone is the philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who lived at nearby Old Gorhambury House. Bacon is sometimes credited with being the first English scientist – he died from pneumonia after attempting to invent frozen food by stuffing a chicken with snow.

Across the road from the church is Verulamium’s famous theatre, built in 140AD and the only Roman theatre in Britain to have a stage rather than an amphitheatre.

The remains of the Roman town walls follow the river path to Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub, formerly a pigeon house for the abbey monks with origins dating back to 793AD and one of several pubs claiming to be the oldest in England.

Stretching north from the cathedral there are narrow winding streets and passageways full of old-world charm, decorated with red brick and stucco facades, as well as Tudor, Georgian and Victorian houses and shops. The medieval clock tower on the high street houses a curfew bell dating from 1335.

It’s easy to see why these Hertfordshire towns are so desirable. Enjoy them while you can.

See our guide to the best hotels in Hertfordshire.