Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for ALBANS (St.)

ALBANS (St.), a town, three parishes, a subdistrict, and a district in Herts. The town stands near the southern extension of the Midland railway, and at the termini of branches of the Great Northern and the Northwestern railways, 21 miles NNW of London. Its site is the summit and the northern declivity of a hill, skirted by the rivulet Ver, a tributary of the Colne; near the vestiges of the ancient town of Verulam and the line of the Roman Watling-street. Verulam or Verulaminm, according to the Roman historians, was founded by the Britons at an earlier period than London. According to Camden, it is the city or fortress of Cassibelan, or Cassivellannus, which was forced by Cæsar. Milton calls St. Albans "jugera Cassibelauni." In Nero's reign it ranked as a municipinm, or free city, enjoying the privileges of Roman citizenship. Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, surprised it in the reign of Clandins, and put the chief part of the inhabitants to the sword; but it soon recovered from this calamity. In a.d. 293, Alban, a citizen of Verulam, who had embraced the Christian faith, was beheaded on a hill in the neighbourhood. In 429, Germans, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes, held a synod here, to confute the Pelagian heresy. Verulam fell not long after into the hands of the Saxons, but was retaken by the Britons, and again reverted to the Saxons. While yet in ruins after these successive contests, Offa, king of Mercia, founded an Abbey here in honour of St. Alban, whose remains had just been discovered on the spot of his martyrdom. Matthew Paris-who was himself a monk in the Abbey of St. Albans-says that Alsinus, the 6th abbot, about 950, built a church on each of the three principal roads leading from the monastery, and that around these the present town of St. Albans gradually arose. Pope Adrian IV. constituted the abbot of St. Albans first abbot in England in order and dignity; and Pope Honorius in 1218, exempted the abbot from the jurisdiction of the bishop of Lincoln, his diocesan. A sanguinary battle was fought here in 1455, between Henry VI. and the Duke of York, in which the Lancastrians were defeated. Money is said by Camden to have been coined here in the time of the Romans. On the introduction of printing into England, a press was put up in the Abbey of St. Albans, from which issued some of the earliest English specimens of the art. Giles, the physician, Sir John Mandeville, the traveller, Alexander Neckham, the poet, Sir John King, the lawyer, Chief Justice Pemberton, and Humphry, the nonconformist, were natives. Bacon, the philosopher, resided at the neighbouring seat of Gorhambury, and had the titles of Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans. Verulam now gives the title of Earl to the family of Grimston; and St. Albans gives that of Duke to the family of Beauclerk.

Verulam long continued to present great attractions to antiquaries, but now possesses nothing of interest except vestiges and associations. Parts of its walls and ditches still exist. Its streets also are still traceable in the green field, by the thin short grass that covers them, and by Roman bricks which can be dug from below. Even substructions of its buildings, matted with weeds or shaded with shrubs and trees, still draw the attention of the curious visitor. But coins, sculptures, and other valued relics, were all long ago carried off by thousands of investigators; and now the best things to be found are merely shingle, mortar, and layers of brick,-the last generally carbonized in the centre. Such multitude and variety of curiosities were gathered here, in former times, by antiquaries and others, that Camden says, "Were I to relate what common report affirms respecting them, I should scarcely be believed." Philosophers and poets alike loved to saunter among the ruined fragments of the town; Sir Thomas More desired to live and die in its vicinity; and Spenser assumed the character of its presiding genius, to sing its grandeur and melancholy glory:—

I was that city, which the garland wore
Of Britain's pride, delivered unto me
By Roman victory, which it wore of yore,
Though nought at all but ruins now I be,
And lie in my own ashes, as ye see.
Verlame I was; what boots it that I was,
Sith now I am but weeds and wasteful grass.

St. Albans consists principally of three streets. Many of the houses are ancient; but others, particularly on the new line of road to the S, are modern. The town hall was rebuilt in 1830. The corn exchange was built in 1857, and is used also as a public hall. The prison consists partly of the tower of the Abbey gateway, partly of a modern addition; and has capacity for 85 male and 15 female prisoners. The free grammar school is in the Lady chapel, formerly a part of the Abbey church; was chartered in 1553 by Edward VI., and further endowed by Elizabeth and James I.; and has an endowed income of £157. The Marlborough buildings are alms houses for 36 decayed men and women, founded and endowed by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough; and have an income of £757. There are other charities £626, four churches, six dissenting chapels, a literary and scientific institution, a blue-coat school, four national schools, and a British school.

The original abbey, founded by King Offa, became ruinous about the time of the Conquest. The subsequent Abbey was of vast extent and great magnificence; but most of it, except the church, has fallen. The church, however, with enormous nave, pinnacled transept, graceful choir, lofty square tower, and grand, ornate, rich interior, is an imposing object, inferior to no minster in the kingdom, either as a feature in the landscape or for its own attractions. It comprises a nave of thirteen bays with aisles; a choir, with aisles; a transept without aisles; a presbytery and ambulatory to the east; and a Lady chapel, of three bays, with vestibule. The nave is 276 feet long, 65 feet broad, and 65 feet high; the choir is 175 feet long; the transept, 175½ feet; the entire edifice, 548½ feet. Three noble towers in fine symmetry formerly rose above it; but only the central one, without spire or pinnacles, now stands; and this is 32¼ feet long, 30¾ feet broad, and 144 feet high. The church was chiefly built in 1077-93, by Abbot Paul of Caen; but was extended and altered at subsequent periods by other abbots; and it exhibits specimens of every style from the Saxon, through the Norman, to the English of the time of Edward IV. This edifice, remarks Lady Morgan, "though but a fragment of the once magnificent, mitred, parliamentary Abbey, attests the grandeur of the whole, and the perfection of ecclesiastical architecture in England during the middle ages. There is still extant, in the interior, specimens of genuine Saxon architecture, a part of the original building, the rounded arch, the massy tower, and enormous pillar, whose rude but noble simplicity is forcibly contrasted to the elaborated elegance of the Gothic style. Screens of the most minute tabernacle-work, pointed arches, feathery shafts, and a profusion of richly-sculptured tracery, display all the characteristic beauty of that most picturesque and fanciful epoch of the art. The high altar, the after-part of the choir, the chapel of Abbot Rambridge, and that of St. Alban, are the most remarkable. There are also existing beneath the fretted roof of this beautiful Abbey church, monuments and tombs well-suited to revive remote associations with great events, and to awaken a poetic nationality in the most phlegmatic temperament. Of these, the tomb of the Protector, Duke of Gloucester, familiarly called the good Duke Humphry, stands on the southern side. "The church has acquired dramatic interest, too, from the pen of Shakspeare; and it has been splendidly illustrated by the Society of Antiquaries. The cloister connected with it was 150 feet square. A part of the south wall of the chapter-house, situated on the south side of the transept, is standing. The gatehouse, which formed the original grand entrance to the Abbey-court, and is now the chief part of the borough prison, stands parallel with the West end of the church, at the distance of about 150 feet.

St. Michael's church was founded about the middle of the 10th century; underwent careful restoration, by Scott, in 1866: and contains the tomb of Bacon, with a beautiful sitting statue of him, erected by Sir T. Meautys. St. Peter's church was rebuilt on the site of a Saxon one, where many of the slain in the two battles of St. Albans had been buried: and it contains a tomb of Dr. Cotton. The ruins of a nunnery, founded in 1140, stand at Sopwell in the south-eastern vicinity of the town. Lady Juliana Berners, who wrote treatises on hunting, hawking, and heraldry, was one of the superiors of this nunnery; and Henry VIII. is said to have been married to Anne Boleyn in its chapel.

The town was incorporated in 1554, by Edward VI. It sent two members to parliament till 1852, and was then disfranchised. It is governed by a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors. It possesses a liberty or district, with peculiar jurisdiction. The borough comprises 425 acres, including all Abbey parish, main parts of St. Michael and St. Peter parishes, and small part of St. Stephen parish; and the liberty includes the rest of these parishes, and also the parishes of Abbots Langley, Aldenham, Barnet, Sandridge, Redbourn, Codicote, Shephall, Brantfield, Elstree, Sarratt, Hexton, Norton, Ridge, St. Paul's Walden, Northaw, Newnham, Rickmansworth, and Watford. Quarter sessions are held in the same weeks as at Hertford; county courts and petty sessions also are held The town has a head post office,‡ two banking offices, and several good inns; it publishes two weekly newspapers; and it has a thriving general business. A market is held on Saturday; and fairs on 25 March and 11 Oct. Straw-platting and silk-weaving are carried on. Real property, £18,035. Pop., in 1851, 7,000; in 1861, 7,675. Houses, 1,503.

The parishes of St. Albans are in the diocese of Rochester. Abbey, or St. Albans-proper, comprises 165 acres; St. Michael, 190 acres; and St. Peter, 5,745 acres; and the-last includes the hamlets of Sleep and Tittenhanger, and part of the hamlet of Smallford. St. Albans-proper is a rectory, and includes, as a separate benefice, the p. curacy of Christ Church. Value of the rectory, £200.* Patron, the Bishop of Rochester. Value of the curacy, £100.* Patron, Mrs. Worley. St. Michael is a vicarage; and includes, as a separate benefice, the vicarage of Leverstock Green. Value of the vicarage, £300,* of the curacy, £50. Patron of both, the Earl of Verulam. St. Peter also is a vicarage, and includes, as a separate benefice, the vicarage of Colney Heath. Value of the vicarage, £308.* Patron, the Crown. Value of the curacy, £330.* Patrons, Trustees. Leverstock Green church was built in 1849.

The subdistrict of St. Albans comprises the parishes of Abbey, St. Michael, St. Peter, and St. Stephen. Acres, 14,240. Pop., 11,926. Houses, 2,320. The district comprehends also the subdistrict of Harpenden; containing the parishes of Wheathampstead, Harpenden, Redbourn, and Sandridge. Acres, 34,515. Poor-rates in 1867, £7,333. Pop. in 1841, 17,048; in 1861, 18,926. Houses, 3,762. Marriages in 1866, 150; births, 646,- of which 57 were illegitimate; deaths, 361,-of which 123 were at ages under 5 years, and 12 were at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,136; births, 5,685; deaths, 3,593. The places of Worship in 1851 were 12 of the Church of England, with 5,723 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 1,198 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 950 s.; 1 of Unitarians, with 150 s.; 6 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 1,458 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 333 s.; 1 of Roman Catholics, with 50 s.; 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 42 s.; and 5 undefined, with 630 s. The schools in 1851, were 17 public day schools, with 1,490 scholars; 36 private day schools, with 600 s.; 22 Sunday schools, with 2,726 s.; and 2 evening schools for adults, with 16 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, three parishes, a subdistrict, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: St Albans CP/AP       St Albans SubD       St Albans RegD/PLU       Hertfordshire AncC
Place names: ALBANS ST     |     ST ALBANS
Place: St Albans

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