page_title: Thundridge
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Thundridge / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Wadesmill: Ermine Street Ermine Street is an old Roman road. Normally these are very straight but occasionally, as here, the straightness principle was abandoned in order to overcome some particular geographical obstacle, probably in this case the crossing of the River Rib. There is an interesting historical name change going on in this village too. If you look at old Ordnance Survey 6" to the mile maps the whole settlement along Ermine Street on either side of the River Rib was shown as Wadesmill, while Thundridge was the name of the much larger parish centred on the church 117556 at the top of the hill at the southern end of the village. Certainly this naming arrangement was recorded as recently as the map edition of 1950, where the word Thundridge can only be found by zooming out of the mapping to show the whole parish. However all the current editions of the OS mapping now refer to Thundridge as the settlement on the south side of the river while Wadesmill has migrated so that it now only covers the village on the north side. There is too a howler in the current OS 1:25,000 scale mapping which refers to Thundridge as Thunderidge.
context_page_description: Thundridge is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire District, in the county of Hertfordshire.
context_section_description: The village of Thundridge was originally located about half a mile to the east of the current Thundridge location, also adjacent to the River Rib. Thundridge derives from the Old English Þunres hrycg = "ridge belonging to the god Thunor or Thor". There are references to "Tonrich" in the Domesday Book with land being held by the Bishop of Bayeux and tenanted by Hugh de Grentmesnil, with the record indicating that there was a drop in the value of the land from 100 shillings to 40 shillings. There had however been civilised habitation in the area earlier than that, with both Roman and Saxon remains being found in the adjacent estate known as "Youngsbury" just a few hundred yards away from the old Thundridge location.
  With the 1826 improvement of the London to Cambridge road that runs on the west side of the current Thundridge village location – formerly it had run a more crooked path through "Ermine" or "Back Street" in the village – there was an increased populous migration to the "new" location of Thundridge, adjacent to the main road. All that now remain of the old Thundridge location are the 15th-century church tower of the "Thundridge Old Church" of All Hallows and Little Saint Mary, and a few bricks from the chimney-stack of the Manorial home of Thundridgebury. In recent years, the Old Church has come under threat from vandalism, decay and an ecclesiastical desire to divest itself of the cost and liability of maintenance. The "Thundridge Old Church Action Group" (abbr. "TOCAG") is working to achieve some form of permanent protection.
  Thundridgebury was built during the reign of Henry VIII, possibly by Henry Gardiner – the Gardiners being a family that became prominent in later years, and giving name to the nearby wood "Gardiner's Spring". The last inhabitants of Thundridgebury were the Hollingsworth family, they having bought it from Daniel Giles, who had in turn purchased it from the Gardiners. The house was dismantled in the early 19th century, as was subsequently the church in 1853, with only the chimney-stack and tower remaining respectively. According to local legend, the chimney stack was left standing in order to allow the owners to continue to collect rent, but a later local legend (which was correct) was that its presence allowed the owners to maintain a pew in the new Thundridge church – built in the "new" Thundridge location in 1851 and consecrated in 1853 – as technically the manorial land which had been absorbed into the Youngsbury estate when purchased by the Giles, now fell under the parish of Standon, the church for which was some 5 miles distant. So long as the chimney-stack remained however, the pew in the Thundridge church was kept available for the owners of the (now combined) property of Youngsbury.
caption: Thundridge "Back Street", now "Ermine Street" - geograph.org.uk - 951781
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