Puckeridge is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in East Hertfordshire

East Hertfordshire

East Hertfordshire is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England. Its council has offices in Bishop's Stortford and Hertford ....

, 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...

.

The earliest settlers in the area were the Belgae

Belgae

The Belgae were a group of tribes living in northern Gaul, on the west bank of the Rhine, in the 3rd century BC, and later also in Britain, and possibly even Ireland...

, who arrived around 180 BC. A Roman town existed just to the north of the existing village and the village is at the cross roads of two major Roman roads, Ermine Street

Ermine Street

Ermine Street is the name of a major Roman road in England that ran from London to Lincoln and York . The Old English name was 'Earninga Straete' , named after a tribe called the Earningas, who inhabited a district later known as Armingford Hundred, around Arrington, Cambridgeshire and Royston,...

 and Stane Street. The neighbouring villages of Standon

Standon, Hertfordshire

Standon is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire. The parish includes the adjoining village of Puckeridge. The village church of St Mary has Saxon origins with much Victorian restoration.The Prime Meridian passes to the west of Standon....

 and Braughing

Braughing

Braughing is a village and civil parish, between the rivers Quin and Rib, in the non-metropolitan district of East Hertfordshire, part of the English county of Hertfordshire, England...

 are recorded in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 but Puckeridge is not although it was probably in existence. It survived the Black Death

Black Death

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...

 in the 14th century. A number of charities were established in Puckeridge in the 17th century, which gave grants of land that enabled the expansion of the village.
The village developed and thrived because it was on the coaching route between London and Cambridge, Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

 records that he stopped at the Falcon (now the Crown and Falcon). Eventually the coming of the railway in the 19th century led to a decline in the fortune of the many Taverns and Inns in the village.
The village is now a popular place to live close to good road networks leading into and around London.
The village shares its name with HMS Puckeridge, a Hunt class destroyer

Hunt class destroyer

The Hunt class was a class of Destroyer escort of the Royal Navy. The first vessels were ordered early in 1939, and the class saw extensive service in World War II, particularly on the British East Coast and Mediterranean convoys. They were named after British fox hunts...

 named after the Puckeridge Hunt Puckeridge Hunt website(located in nearby Brent Pelham), which was lost to enemy action during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.
Near Puckeridge, there is Puckeridge DECCA tower, a free-standing tower radiator

Mast radiator

A mast radiator is a radio mast or tower in which the whole structure itself functions as an antenna. This design is commonly used for transmitting antennas operating at low frequencies, in the VLF, LF and MF ranges, in particular those used for AM broadcasting. The metal mast is electrically...

 used for DECCA

Decca Navigator System

The Decca Navigator System was a low frequency hyperbolic navigation system that was first deployed during World War II when the Allied forces needed a system which could be used to achieve accurate landings...

.

Trivia

Puckeridge is the name of a third-string theater critic in Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard

Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...

's drama The Real Inspector Hound

The Real Inspector Hound

The Real Inspector Hound is a short, one-act play by Tom Stoppard. The plot follows two theatre critics named Moon and Birdboot who are watching a ludicrous setup of a country house murder mystery, in the style of a whodunit...

External links

• Village website
• Puckeridge Hunt website
• White Hart Pub
• Crown and Falcon
• Puckeridge on A Guide to Old Hertfordshire]