Local Information

Berkhamsted lies on the western edge of Hertfordshire, bordering the Chiltern Hills. Over much of the last millennium it was an important market town with strong royal and literary connections; today it is a vibrant residential and cultural centre, and while it is now part of the Borough of Dacorum it has retained its own strong identity.

Together with the adjoining village of Northchurch it is separated from other towns and villages by lovely countryside, all of it in the Metropolitan Green Belt and much of it classified as being an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Berkhamsted's history goes back beyond Saxon times and its claim to fame includes strong royal, literary and teaching connections. It was in Berkhamsted, where earlier there was a Saxon fort, that William was handed the crown in 1066. Here, his half-brother, Count Robert of Mortain built a motte and Bailey Castle with two moats, where substantial ruins of the Castle still remain.

The hymnist and poet, William Cowper, was born in the Rectory, less than two hundred years before Graham Greene was born at St. John's, Chesham Road, a boarding house of Berkhamsted School. James Barrie often stayed here and the Llewellyn Davies children who lived in Egerton House were the inspiration for Peter Pan. A few doors down the High Street is where Clementine Hozier lived and attended the Girls' School, now part of Berkhamsted School. She became the wife of Sir Winston Churchill.