Hill End

Preston, Hertfordshire
in the Nineteenth Century

Lower

Hill End Farm

Farm

Two cottages

Cottage

Hill End Farm

To Whitwell and St Pauls Walden

To: Jacks Hill, Hitchwood Cottages and Preston

To Little Almshoe and St Ibbs

Hill End Farm Estate in 1910

Much of Hill End was considered to be part of Preston. It was included with the village in the counts of 1821 and 1886 and its children attended Preston School as did the present owner of the modern Hill End Farm.

Although the main access to Hill End is from the present B656 (which runs from Langley to Hitchin), there are footpaths that connect with the roads which lead to Preston and Whitwell. The census enumerators went from Hitchwood cottages to Hill End cottages and thence to the Farm.

At the end of the seventeenth century, Mrs Foster was farming at Hill End. It was taken over by the Cook family. James Cook (who married Mrs Foster’s daughter, Elizabeth) was farming there in 1821. He was followed by his son, John Cook and then Thomas Cook. From 1886 until at least 1901 William Jackson farmed there.

In 1851 it consisted of 470 acres and was worked by 21 labourers. On 23 June 1910, Hill End Farm was offered for sale together with Little Almshoe and Langley Farms. It was advertised as being 396 acres of rich grass and arable land with “good partridge shooting”.

The farm house was described as ‘comfortable”. It was brick-built with stuccoed elevation and a slated and tiled roof. On the ground floor were a large dining room, drawing room, office and tiled entrance hall. There was also a dairy, brew house and cellar. On the first floor were six bedrooms and a box room. The Farm was surrounded by outbuildings and had a lawn, flower beds, gravelled walks and shrubberies and an enclosed kitchen garden and orchard.

Near the main farm was a four-roomed cottage built of brick and timber with a tiled roof. There was a smaller farm - ‘Lower Farm’ - which was part of the estate. Close by were the two Minsden Cottages which had four rooms and were built of timber with tiled roofs. Two more cottages were at Lower Hill End. They had three rooms and were of brick and stuccoed construction with tiled roofs. These cottages were considered to be part of Langley rather than Preston. Finally, there were two cottages at Poynders End which were included in the Hill End Farm estate. Thus, there were seven cottages on the estate where some of its labourers lived.

As well as rearing cattle, Hill End was a sheep farm. My great x3 grandfather, Robert Currell (a shepherd) lived in one of the Minsden cottages from 1781 until his death in 1832. In 1828, his married son, Samuel was also living there. My great grandfather, Charles Wray (a hurdlemaker) had moved from Tewin in Hertfordshire to Hill End by the time of his marriage in 1852.

The following are others who lived in the cottages at Hill End:

1851/2

ENGLISH, Joseph

ROBOTTOM, George

ANDREWS, William

1861

HILSDEN, Henry

ALDRIDGE, William

1871

HILSDEN, Henry

SMITH, Jesse

1820’s

JEFFREY, William

DAY

1841

ENGLISH, Joseph

1881

SHAMBROOK, George

CREWE, William

PALMER, George

1891

Two cottages uninhabited

SHAW, John

CULLEN, James

1901

MARSHALL, William

YOUNG, Henry

CRAWLEY, John

WRIGHT, Alfred

DARTON, Henry

Above, Hill End as seen from the B656 in 2006

Left, one of the surviving outbuildings at Hill End

Shortly after the sale of Hill End Farm in 1910, the farm house was demolished. In 1912, the architect Sir Edward Lutyens designed ‘Hill End’ for the wife of his client at nearby Temple Dinsley. The site was described as being on the brow of a hill rising above a wooded cleft above which the silhouette of the roof and chimneys loom imposingly.