The history of Northaw: a wood, a ridge and a thousand years of stories

Stand on Northaw's green, high on its ridge above the wooded valleys, and you stand where monks, earls and kings once argued over every tree. This is a parish shaped by its woodland.

Stagmere: the house at the heart of it all

Stagmere is the grand historic manor house that effectively shaped the village we see today. For centuries, the entire layout and daily life of the village revolved around the great estate at Stagmere. Walking through the village, you are walking in the shadow of Stagmere, the ancestral manor house that historically held sway over these lands.

In 2024 Stagmere changed hands, and the title incorporated in its inheritance was transferred to the philanthropist Courtney Jordan, who has vowed to keep the property, restore it and open it to the public by summer 2027. Read our Stagmere guide.

North Haga: the abbey's wood

In the 11th century the great wood here, called North Haga, belonged to St Albans Abbey and may have covered much of the parish. Its value made it worth fighting for. Henry II ordered Robert, Earl of Leicester, to settle a dispute over it, and the abbey won. In 1200 the abbot kept the wood after giving up other land and paying 80 marks to end another claim.

Legend says the 12th-century hermit Sigar lived in these woods and, disturbed by their song, banished the nightingales with his prayers.

Earls and drapers

The abbey held Northaw until the Dissolution in 1539. The Crown then granted the manor to William Cavendish and his wife Margaret. In 1576 it passed to Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, brother of Elizabeth I's favourite, Robert Dudley. In 1632 the London woollen draper William Leman bought it, and the Lemans, later baronets, held it until 1708. In 1876 John Pearson Kidston bought the manor, and the Kidstons of Nyn Park became the village's great family.

A king's fund and a royal spa

In 1618 James I enclosed Northaw Common to enlarge his hunting park at Theobalds. In return, money from the king bought about twenty acres for the benefit of the parish, the origin of King James' Fund. Under Charles II the King's Wells near Cuffley became a fashionable spa; the king is said to have sent a tent for the visitors.

Great houses

Northaw Place dates from the late 17th century. The old house at Nyn Park was pulled down in 1774, and its materials were used to build Northaw House the same year. The Kidston Institute, a village reading room and club, opened in 1902 to 1903.

The church on the ridge

The present church of St Thomas à Becket, listed Grade II*, was built in 1881 by C. Kirk and Son of Sleaford after fire destroyed the church of 1809. A 15th-century octagonal font survives in the churchyard, and the parish registers begin in the 16th century.

The wood in the 20th century

Hertfordshire County Council bought 290 acres of the Great Wood in 1937 to protect it. During the Second World War it formed part of the Outer London anti-tank stop line, and concrete blocks still lie among the trees. It became a country park in 1968 and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The night the sky caught fire

On 3 September 1916 the German airship SL11 was shot down by Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson and fell burning at Cuffley, the first airship destroyed on British soil. The memorial's land was given by Mrs Kidston of Nyn Park. Read the full story.

Northaw today

Northaw was part of the Metropolitan Police District until 2000. The ancient parish was renamed Northaw and Cuffley in 1982 and is now home to about 6,000 people, around 590 of them in Northaw village itself.

Sources and further reading

• "Parishes: Northaw", A History of the County of Hertford, volume 2 (Victoria County History, 1908), on British History Online.
• Historic England list entries for the Parish Church of St Thomas a Becket (1348170), the Two Brewers (1295969) and the Captain William Leefe Robinson VC memorial obelisk (1453981).
• Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council and the Friends of Northaw Great Wood.

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