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The Later Anglo-Saxon Period (AD 870-AD 1066)

During the 9th century AD much of Hertfordshire fell under the control of the Danish - the Vikings - who had successfully conquered Mercia, and in AD 886 the river Lea in the south of the county was established as the border between Anglo-Saxon Wessex and the ‘Danelaw’.

King Alfred’s son Edward the Elder began to reconquer the Danelaw in the early 10th century and he founded a defended town or ‘burh’ at Hertford in AD 912-13. Anglo-Saxon Hertford was therefore a ‘frontier’ town whose siting and plan would probably have been chosen by King Edward himself. Indeed Hertford is a good example of early ‘town planning’ by government officials, and it still retains many of its original Anglo-Saxon planned features, including the rectangular grid pattern of the street layout, and the property boundaries of the town merchants, or ‘burgesses’ as they were known.

It is probably at this time that Hertfordshire was created as a ‘shire’ county, out of reconquered Danelaw territory, and it is possible that much of the county boundary was also set by Edward’s officials.

Evidence of the uncertain times of the 10th century in Hertfordshire is clearly demonstrated by the find of a Viking sword in the river Lea near Hertford. In addition to Hertford, there is evidence that Berkhamsted, Hitchin and St Albans were important late Anglo-Saxon towns. There is also archaeological evidence for Anglo-Saxon village sites in the north of the county at Pirton, Letchworth and Caldecote, and it is likely that many more sites await discovery in and around Hertfordshire’s historic villages.