Tring and Berkhamsted

Two small towns located in the county of Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom, Tring and Berkhamsted have populations of 11,000 and 16,000 respectively. Both have long and interesting histories and both were mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1089. Berkhamsted in fact was the site of Edgar Aetheling’s surrender to William of Normandy (who thus became William the Conqueror), Berkhamsted’s stone castle was built on the site of a former wooden Saxon fortification in the 1080’s until finally abandoned in the late fifteenth century, in the 14th century Edward the Black Prince spent his honeymoon there. Tring Manor was once owned by the great grandfather of George Washington (U.S president), and later by the Rothschild family who founded the well known Natural History Museum in the town. The four Tring reservoirs were built to supply water to the Grand Union canal, which runs north of the town. Tring Map.

Hemel Hempstead Hertfordshire

A bustling town within the UK county of Hertfordshire, Hemel Hempstead was possibly settled as long ago as the Roman times, with remains of a Roman villa being found in nearby Boxmoor. The first records mentioning the town date from the 8th century and its name drived from the Anglo-Saxon Hean-Hempsted (or High Hempstead), in the Domesday Book it was named as Hamelamesede. The Norman conquest saw its land owned by Robert, Count of Mortain, it was later controlled by Thomas Becket, it was later granted a Royal Charter by Henry 8th. The town has mostly grown however since WW2 as it was developed as a ‘new town’, it now has a population of around 81,000. Map of Hemel Hempstead.