Hunton Bridge is a small settlement near Abbots Langley

Abbots Langley

Abbots Langley is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. It is an old settlement and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Economically the village is closely linked to Watford and was formerly part of the Watford Rural District...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 with a historic royal connection. Its population in the 1991 census was 327.

Its period of greatest prosperity was 1810-26 when the Sparrows Herne turnpike

Sparrows Herne turnpike

The Sparrow's Herne Turnpike road was an 18th century English turnpike road from London to Aylesbury.Its route was approximately that of the later A41 trunk road, , and much of the original route is now numbered as the A4251...

 ran through the village. Prior to that date the turnpike had run along Gypsy Lane and Upper Highway. In 1810 it was rerouted along Old Mill Lane to the village, and up the hill to reconnect with Upper Highway. By 1826 the presence of the canal

Grand Junction Canal

The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, by-passing the upper reaches of the River Thames near Oxford...

, and the works associated with it had dried out the bottom land sufficiently for the turnpike to be rerouted along what is now the A41

A41 road

The A41 is a formerly-major trunk road in England that links London and Birkenhead, although it has now largely been superseded by motorways. It passes through or near various towns and cities including Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton,...

 avoiding the climb up Hunton Bridge Hill.

Today the village finds itself situated between the M25 London orbital motorway

M25 motorway

The M25 motorway, or London Orbital, is a orbital motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it ...

 and a spur of the motorway leading to Watford

Watford

Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...

. The A41 trunk road runs just west of the village. The Hunton Bridge filling station

Filling station

A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...

 just off the Watford spur (Junction 19 of the M25) is a local landmark.

History

Public Houses
Hunton Bridge currently has three public houses. It used to have five, having lost the Maltsters Arms in 1963, and the Farriers Arms in 1965.

The remaining pubs are :

• the Waterside Tavern (formerly the Kings Head), a 300 year old grade II listed building which has now been refurbished as a restaurant and bar. In the years when the turnpike ran through Hunton Bridge it served as a coaching inn;
• the Kings Lodge, which was built in 1642 as a hunting lodge for King Charles I
  Charles I of England
  Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
  
  , also refurbished as a restaurant and bar
• the Dog and Partridge on Old Mill Road.

1 Bridge Road
The land adjacent to the Grand Union Canal and to the north of Bridge Road was in industrial use from the opening of the canal. A coal wharf known as Hunton Bridge Wharf was established approximately 100 years after the opening, consisting of a tramway, warehouse and managers dwelling. Of these buildings only the cottage remains at 1 Bridge Road.

The Old School House
The original house was demolished and replaced with the current fine brick early Georgian building which was built in the late 1720’s. Subsequent changes were made during the 1800’s such as the addition of the library joining the main house to the servant wing.

Hunton Canal Bridge
The original structure was demolished in 1932 and replaced with an ornate reinforced concrete skew arch

Skew arch

A skew arch is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and its plan view being a parallelogram, rather than the rectangle that is the plan view of...

. The structure includes an ornate cornice to the parapet and ballustrades. The existing western edge beam was demolished in 1983 due to a vehicular impact with a new aluminium parapet. The structure was Grade II listed in 1985.

Planning History

On the 28th June 1984, Three Rivers District Council Planning Committee resolved that an area of Hunton Bridge, should be designated as a Conservation Area, and subsequently extended in 1990 in terms of the Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

Listed buildings within the boundary include

Grade II* Listed

• Church of St. Paul
• The Kings Lodge

Grade II Listed

• Lych Gate
• Loyd Memorial Cross
• The Old School House
• The Kings Head Public House
• K6 Telephone Kiosk
• Hunton Canal Bridge

Locally Important Buildings

• 1, Bridge Road
• Brookside Cottages

Ordnance Survey Maps

In the gallery below are Ordnance Survey maps of Hunton Bridge.