| Aldbury | |
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  Aldbury shown within Hertfordshire |
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| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| Shire county | Hertfordshire |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | Hertfordshire |
| Fire | Hertfordshire |
| Ambulance | |
| European Parliament | |
| List of places: UK • England • Hertfordshire | |
Aldbury is a village in Hertfordshire in England, near the borders of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire nestled in a valley close to Ashridge Park. The nearest town is Tring; Tring railway station, 1.0 miles to the west, is in the parish of Aldbury. Uphill from the village are the Bridgewater monument and the Ashridge estate. As a village of the Old English type Aldbury has perhaps no equal in the county. In the centre is the green and pond; close by stand the stocks and whipping-post, in excellent preservation, a primary school and the Church of Saint John the Baptist is E.E. The church was restored in 1867, and is notable for the Verney Chapel, which is separated from the nave by a screen of stone, and contains a monument to Sir Robert Whittingham, who was slain at the battle of Tewkesbury. The church also contains memorials of the Hides and Harcourts, families who left several charities to the poor of the parish. In the days of Edward the Confessor the manor of Aldeberie was held by one Alwin, the king’s thegn. The ascent of the wooded slope towards the Bridgewater Monument takes the visitor through one of the most beautiful districts in the county, and a noble prospect stretches before him as he looks back through the beeches towards the village in the valley beneath. As a result of its charm and state of preservation, it is a popular rural location for films and television. Amongst the television series filmed in the village are:
- several episodes of the popular sixties TV series, The Avengers, including the complete episode Murdersville;
- the initial advertisements for the National Lottery - despite the fact that the shop was unable to sell tickets at the time; and
- the short-lived Shillingbury Tales series, filmed in 1980. The church, churchyard/graveyard and path to the primary school as well as the Greyhound public house also featured heavily in a classic Dave Allen sketch (the race to the funeral between two funeral parties).
Films that have had scenes set in Aldbury include:
- The Dirty Dozen 1967
- Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason 2004
- and the last production by Gainsborough Pictures, "Jassy" of 1947.
It is a small village of around 800 inhabitants, with a small shop and two traditional country pubs: the Greyhound and the Valiant Trooper, both are run by the same landlord currently. The Greyhound has featured in the movie: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (including a scene involving fox hunting that was cut from the cinema release but is on the DVD release) and Inspector Morse - the TV detective series.
The largest house in the village is Stocks House which, among its various incarnations, was the country home of Victor Lownes and the rural base of Playboy UK; and before that home of Mary Augusta Ward, the author of Clinton Magna whose character Bessie Costrell lived in Aldbury. A troop of Morris men is based here and perform on certain key dates outside the Greyhound public house. Aldbury Parish Council is the local administrative body and covers Aldbury village itself and the hamlet at Tring Station - in Saxon times, Aldbury lay in Dacorum, one of the Hundreds of Hertfordshire and in 1973, the Dacorum Borough of Hertfordshire was created with Aldbury in it.
References
- Hertfordshire, by Herbert W Tompkins, 2nd Edition, 1922, from Project Gutenberg
- grid reference SP964124
- Hertfordshire Genealogy
- Aldbury Primary School
- Tring Council web site
- Aldbury locations, from Internet Movie Database
- Aldbury Morris Men
- Dave Allen Funeral Sketch hosted on YouTube
It should not be confused with the similar sounding Albury, especially Albury, Hertfordshire.
