Stevenage, Hertfordshire

Description
Stevenage, a small town and a parish in Herts. The town has a station on the G.N.R., 4 miles SE by S of Hitchin, 12 NW from Hertford, and 28 3/4 from London. Acreage of parish, 4545; population, 3309. Stevenage is an ancient place, and was known at the time of the Domesday survey as Stevenach. It now consists chiefly of the High Street, a thoroughfare about three-quarters of a mile long, running north and south, and a few minor streets. It is controlled by an urban district council of twelve members, has a head post office, and is the head of a petty sessional division. Straw-plait is made, and a pleasure fair is held on 22 and 23 Sept The manor was given by Edward the Confessor to Westminster Abbey, and by Edward VI. to the Bishops of London. It now belongs to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Six barrows, supposed to be of Danish origin, are half a mile S from the town. The public hall, erected by a company in 1872, stands in Orchard Road, will accommodate 600 persons, and is the place where the petty sessions are held. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; gross value, £832 with residence. The church of St Nicholas, which stands about three-quarters of a mile NE from the town, is an ancient building of flint in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel with chapels, nave, aisles, S transept, S porch, and an embattled western tower with spire. The church of the Holy Trinity, at the south end of the town, was erected in 1861, enlarged in 1881, and again enlarged in 1885, and is a building of brick, flint, and stone, in a modern Gothic style. There are Baptist and Wesleyan chapels, an endowed grammar school founded in 1558, almshouses for six widows, and some small charities.