A History of Preston
in Hertfordshire
Wain Wood was a lucrative source of income for its owners. The accounts of the woodward or bailiff, John Merritt, from 1739 to 1767 have survived. These not only describe how the wood was used but also list the villagers (including some widows) who cut it. Some travelled from Hitchin and Gosmore.
Every year between five and six acres of wood were rented to local people. Each was
allocated (on a rotational basis) a small area of woodland from which they cut hornbeam.
This was used for their own firewood or sold around the district. A man could make
this his full-
In addition, between 3,300 and 9,000 ‘rads’ were produced annually at Wain Wood.
“Rads’ were probably bundles of faggots, light branches and shoots which were cut
by estate workers and sold in lots of a thousand. Another source of revenue was the
35 to 102 yards of bark which was sold to tanners each year in the mid-
From these three items the wood brought in an annual revenue of between £33 and £55.
The demand for firewood, however, was affected by the coming of the railway in the
nineteenth century which introduced affordable coal to the neighbourhood. Then, although
the rental of wooded areas for coppicing continued, the main attraction of woodland
such as Wain Wood was its potential for shooting -
Villagers chop wood for fuel in Wain Wood
John Bunyan and Wain Wood
Wain Wood will always be linked with John Bunyan (1628-
‘At Wain Wood, in Hitchin parish, there was no preaching shed. The cottage is still
there with its pleasant ingle-
For many years anniversary services were held at the dell but this custom had lapsed
long before the 1880s. However, the large attendances in 1882 at the newly-
In 1928, there was an enactment of Bunyan’s original sermon an Bunyan’s Dell from which these photographs were taken.
Bunyan’s Cottage
Bunyan’s Cottage from a drawing by Samuel Lucas circa 1860
Bunyan’s Dell, Wain Wood circa 1960
Four views of Bunyan’s Cottage from the 1920/30s
Bunyan’s Cottage was traditionally the lair of the Wain Wood gamekeepers for at least a 100 years from 1851. The following is a list of its known occupants:
WESTWOOD, Samuel
ROBINSON, Thomas and Mary
HARPER, Edward
FENWICK, Bertram
and BARNES, Ralph
BRIGGS, George
ARMOUR, John and Emily
CLAXTON, William and Edith
PEARCE, Victor
HARPER, Frank
MIDDLEDITCH, Dick, Betty, Ethel and Philip
1851-
1891
1890s
1901
1901
1910-
1920
1925
1930
1940s
1951
Farmer and gamekeeper
Gamekeeper
Gamekeeper and father of Frank, below
Gamekeeper
Gamekeeper, son of Edward
Gamekeeper and cricket club groundsman, umpire and life member
A walk through Wain Wood -
I remember walking through the wood in about 1960. There were lines of dead birds
and small animals which had been strung out between trees by Dick Middleditch, the
gamekeeper. When I walked through the wood recently, I recalled that it was a short-
The walk starts near the bottom of Preston Hill (A on the map above) and concludes at the stile off Chequers Lane.
The start of the footpath A near the bottom of Preston Hill
After following the path to the right at a fork (the left track leads to Bunyan’s Cottage),
the right of way is clearly marked
A glimpse of Bunyan’s Cottage from the footpath. Note the ‘green man’ on the wall
Left and right: the way through the woods
Sources: ‘Hitchin Countryside’ and ‘History of Hitchin’ -
Above: A montage showing Bunyan’s Dell
Wain Wood, to the north of Preston, was a part of the immense forest that once stretched from Hitchin to Hatfield. Because of its age and richness of flora and fauna, it is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Wain Wood was owned by the Radcliffe family.
The name of the wood, Wain, has prompted speculation that it was inhabited by pagans.
Wain may derived from a word meaning valley of heathen worshippers. An alternative
(and far less intriguing) connotation is that the name means a wain or wagon-
In the nineteenth century, Wain Wood lay in the parish of Ippollitts and was almost
a mile wide and long. It was dominated by oak trees and hornbeam and had a coniferous
plantation of pine and larch. Beneath the canopy of trees, the wood was celebrated
for its spring-
Butterflies (such as the speckled wood butterfly) and moths flitted about the wood in profusion while adders and lizards made their homes in the undergrowth of the forest floor.
Wain Wood was a favourite haunt of Hitchin Quaker families because of its abundant
natural surroundings. There they ‘botanized, bird-
On 5 March 1885, one of the wood’s occupants was rudely disturbed -