Hertfordshire Hotels

On London's Northern perimeter, Hertfordshire has for long been a sought-after county, both as a place to live and to do business. The Romans founded a hillside city at St Albans, whose cathedral stands on the burial place of England's first Christian martyr. The Museum at Verulanium has one of the best Roman relic and curio collections in the country. The magnificent Jacobean mansion Hatfield House was built between 1607 and 1611. It is occupied by members of the Cecil family to this day. Knebworth House nearby was the home of the Lytton family and is now the setting for many concerts and entertainment days.

In the southeast of the county Waltham Abbey church is all that remains of a huge abbey founded by King Harold. Stansted Mountfitchet, near London's third airport, had a Norman castle, destroyed by King John and now recreated with a giant catapault, thatched falconry and Grand Hall.

The Hadhams and the Pelhams are showpiece villages of Elizabethan cottages and Regency houses. Ayot St Lawrence was the home of George Bernard Shaw. The county benefits from the rolling countryside of the East Chilterns. Some would say it had been spoiled by Britains's first post-war New Town Experiments of Welwyn Garden City, Letchworth and Stevenage, now all thriving centres of light industry. County town is Hertford with the remains of a 15th century castle.