County Dossier
Hertfordshire
On the edge of metropolis: market town and manor country.
Hertfordshire is an inland county in southern England, combining rolling countryside with historic towns and modern developments.
At a glance
Hertfordshire at a glance
On the edge of metropolis: market town and manor country.
- River crossing & market site
- Earliest reference: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- London’s hinterland
- Area: 633 sq miles / 1,639 sq km
- Population: 1,157,166
- County Top: Pavis Wood (800ft / 244m)
County Geography
Hertfordshire lies between Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north and Middlesex and Essex to the south and east, with Buckinghamshire on the western side. The county is shaped by low rolling ground, the Lea system, and the Chiltern rise in the west.
The county’s coherence comes from its position as London’s northern county belt framed by river valleys and western upland edge.
Map Reference
View Hertfordshire on the map
Hertfordshire is the county. The map also shows lieutenancies and council areas that use the county name.
The county.
The lieutenancy.
Council areas.
Places and routes
St Albans, Hertford, Watford, Stevenage, and Hitchin explain the county from Roman and market-town core to western approach and northern route corridor. Together they place Hertfordshire as a linked inland county, not simply an outer edge of London.
Connections
The Great North Road, the Lea corridor, and the westward approaches toward the Chilterns have long organised movement across Hertfordshire. Together, those routes define a coherent county frame.
Names
- Hertfordshire
- County of Hertford
County of Hertford is the formal historical style. Herts remains the familiar short form, while the county name itself reflects the shire built around Hertford and the ford on the Hart.
By the 10th century Hertfordshire was established in the English shire framework, and Domesday records its hundreds as a settled county structure. The Lea side, London approaches, and Chiltern edge still form a clear historic county geography.