Smaller Hamlets

Green Street

Continuing north through Bury Green, it would be easy to miss Green Street, which lies tucked away between Millfield Lane and Cradle End. Picturesque cottages line the single road that winds through the hamlet, bounded on all sides by open countryside. It is easy to imagine horse-drawn carts and the slower pace of life of a bygone age in the peaceful setting of Green Street.

Cradle End

At other times, like most hamlets in Little Hadham, Cradle End resembles a rural idyll, all the more surprising because, as the crow flies, it is less than a mile from Bishop’s Stortford and its population of around 41,000.

Hadham Hall

Turning left out of Cradle End on to the Stortford Road brings you to Hadham Hall, the most famous historic building in Little Hadham. In earlier times, village life revolved around the Hadham Hall estate, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book. There has been a manor house on the site since William the Conqueror. A brick-built hall was constructed in 1440 on a site partly occupied by the present building. Queen Elizabeth I stayed at Hadham Hall in 1578. Hadham Hall was restored as a country home at the turn of the century by Mr. William Minet.

In 1949 it was sold to Hertfordshire County Council and in 1952 became the county’s first comprehensive school. The school was closed in 1990 and converted to private homes and apartments. Despite its modern role, the imposing aspect of the Hall, lying at the end of a long avenue of trees, is a powerful reminder of why Little Hadham is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

Church End

Further down Stortford Road towards The Ash is the hamlet of Church End. A small group of properties consisting of a farmhouse and farm buildings, farm cottages, industrial development and private homes cluster around the 12th Century church of St Cecilia, named after the patron saint of music. Appropriately, in addition to regular church services, weddings and funerals, annually on St Cecilia’s Day the church becomes a concert venue for classical music or jazz. The medieval village of what is now Little Hadham was centred on the church and Stone House Farm, which still exists opposite Church End Lane.