From the car park walk up Langley Hill and turn left into Archer Close. Go right on to a signposted footpath, soon with fields on the left and the Rudolf Steiner School on the right, the site of Kings Langley Palace. The path curves right and after going through a kissing gate turn left to cross the A41 road. Descend the hill (with housing on the right) and, opposite No. 102 go left through a kissing gate into pasture.
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Follow the hedge south through several pastures, then a hedged path descending to the valley bottom. Turn left at a kissing gate (do not go through it) to follow a hedged path to another kissing gate and turn right on to a green lane. Pass some farm buildings on your right. At a footpath sign turn right on to a concrete lane, with the boundary wall to Langley Lodge alongside and Sunbury Hill Farmhouse to the right.
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Turn right, guided by a painted sign on a farm building, to go through a hand gate and straight on in a cattle pasture. Ignore a left turn and carry on alongside a fence, soon descending steeply to the valley bottom. Go uphill through a kissing gate, then head diagonally left across arable land, towards a group of trees. Pass through a field gate and turn left on to a green lane, signposted ‘Langleybury Lane’, back into the valley. Beyond a gate the bridleway swings right to follow the valley bottom. Ignore paths meeting and crossing the lane. Continue as it goes left to climb out of the valley between hedges. At the crest pass Model Farm. Beyond it the track becomes a tarmac lane within a lime avenue. Passing through woods, the lane crosses the M25 and comes to a road.
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Turn left downhill. On the right is Langleybury House. You get a good view of its northeast front as you descend to Hunton Bridge and pass St Paul’s Church. Cross the busy A41 via an underpass into Bridge Road. Pass the brick and flint former school of 1858 and turn left before the bridge to descend to the Grand Union Canal tow path.
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Follow it north through the water-meadows of the River Gade, past Lock 71, North Grove. Pass under the M25 viaduct, a rather graceful curving one on channelled piers. Continue past Lock 70 and then a boating lake on the left.
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Leave the canal at a road bridge, Number 158. Turn left on to the road that bears left and then right uphill, now Church lane, to Kings Langley’s parish church. From the church turn right into the High Street and beyond The Saracen's Head turn left back into Langley Hill.
Kings Langley’s All Saints Church contains a richly decorated alabaster and marble chest tomb adorned with shields, mostly with royal coats of arms. A royal tomb might seem odd in a relatively modest parish church, but this is Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, the fifth son of Edward III. He was... born at Langley in 1341 and spent much of his childhood here, as did his brother, later King Richard II. With him was buried his wife Isabella of Castile who died in 1392. They spent a lot of time at Langley Palace and their daughter Constance was known as ‘the white rose of Langley’. Edmund, who died in 1402, was originally buried in the church of a Dominican friary founded up the hill in 1308 by his grandfather Edward II. The friary was built at the gates of a royal palace established within the royal hunting park of Langley by Edward I’s wife, Eleanor of Castile in the 1270s.It is surprising to find that this palace, rather like Nonsuch Palace in Surrey, has completely vanished along with the hunting park and almost all the friary.During the Black Death and other plagues Edward III ruled England from Langley. Later Richard II was for a while buried in the friary, as was Edward II’s notorious favourite Piers Gaveston. Kings Langley Palace itself has an association with the great English poet Geoffrey Chaucer who was appointed its Clerk of the Works by Richard II. The palace’s glory days ended in a disastrous fire in 1431 and it fell into serious neglect and decay, although the gatehouse and various structures were still standing in the late 16th century. Of the friary dissolved under Henry VIII in 1539 a long two-storeyed building remains, now within a private school. The church decayed and its lead removed for use at Windsor Castle, so a new home was needed for Edmund of Langley’s tomb. Around 1557 it was dismantled and installed in the parish church and is now its greatest glory. In 1878 it was moved to a new extension to the northeast chapel. The east window’s stained glass was given by Queen Victoria. The Palace itself has vanished but excavation in 1970 found a very large basement wine cellar and other evidence indicates it was built round three large courtyards. It was located at the top of Langley Hill approximately where the current Waldorf and Rudolf Steiner Schools are located. Langleybury House Until the mid-1990s a school, this early Georgian mansion, four-square in brick with a balustraded parapet and urns, was built in the 1720s for the then Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Raymond. Its farm is now a Hertfordshire County Council children’s farm, generally open during the school holidays and at weekends.
As Hertfordshire is so close to London, many of its towns have become commuter havens. St Albans, less than 19 miles (30km) from the capital, has retained its distinctive character, along with many historic remains.
From the car park walk up Langley Hill and turn left into Archer Close. Go right on to a signposted footpath, soon with fields on the left and the Rudolf Steiner School on the right, the site of Kings Langley Palace. The path curves right and after going through a kissing gate turn left to cross the A41 road. Descend the hill (with housing on the right) and, opposite No. 102 go left through a kissing gate into pasture.
Â
1 of 6
Follow the hedge south through several pastures, then a hedged path descending to the valley bottom. Turn left at a kissing gate (do not go through it) to follow a hedged path to another kissing gate and turn right on to a green lane. Pass some farm buildings on your right. At a footpath sign turn right on to a concrete lane, with the boundary wall to Langley Lodge alongside and Sunbury Hill Farmhouse to the right.
Â
2 of 6
Turn right, guided by a painted sign on a farm building, to go through a hand gate and straight on in a cattle pasture. Ignore a left turn and carry on alongside a fence, soon descending steeply to the valley bottom. Go uphill through a kissing gate, then head diagonally left across arable land, towards a group of trees. Pass through a field gate and turn left on to a green lane, signposted ‘Langleybury Lane’, back into the valley. Beyond a gate the bridleway swings right to follow the valley bottom. Ignore paths meeting and crossing the lane. Continue as it goes left to climb out of the valley between hedges. At the crest pass Model Farm. Beyond it the track becomes a tarmac lane within a lime avenue. Passing through woods, the lane crosses the M25 and comes to a road.
Â
3 of 6
Turn left downhill. On the right is Langleybury House. You get a good view of its northeast front as you descend to Hunton Bridge and pass St Paul’s Church. Cross the busy A41 via an underpass into Bridge Road. Pass the brick and flint former school of 1858 and turn left before the bridge to descend to the Grand Union Canal tow path.
Â
4 of 6
Follow it north through the water-meadows of the River Gade, past Lock 71, North Grove. Pass under the M25 viaduct, a rather graceful curving one on channelled piers. Continue past Lock 70 and then a boating lake on the left.
Â
5 of 6
Leave the canal at a road bridge, Number 158. Turn left on to the road that bears left and then right uphill, now Church lane, to Kings Langley’s parish church. From the church turn right into the High Street and beyond The Saracen's Head turn left back into Langley Hill.
Kings Langley’s All Saints Church contains a richly decorated alabaster and marble chest tomb adorned with shields, mostly with royal coats of arms. A royal tomb might seem odd in a relatively modest parish church, but this is Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, the fifth son of Edward III. He was... born at Langley in 1341 and spent much of his childhood here, as did his brother, later King Richard II. With him was buried his wife Isabella of Castile who died in 1392. They spent a lot of time at Langley Palace and their daughter Constance was known as ‘the white rose of Langley’. Edmund, who died in 1402, was originally buried in the church of a Dominican friary founded up the hill in 1308 by his grandfather Edward II. The friary was built at the gates of a royal palace established within the royal hunting park of Langley by Edward I’s wife, Eleanor of Castile in the 1270s.It is surprising to find that this palace, rather like Nonsuch Palace in Surrey, has completely vanished along with the hunting park and almost all the friary.During the Black Death and other plagues Edward III ruled England from Langley. Later Richard II was for a while buried in the friary, as was Edward II’s notorious favourite Piers Gaveston. Kings Langley Palace itself has an association with the great English poet Geoffrey Chaucer who was appointed its Clerk of the Works by Richard II. The palace’s glory days ended in a disastrous fire in 1431 and it fell into serious neglect and decay, although the gatehouse and various structures were still standing in the late 16th century. Of the friary dissolved under Henry VIII in 1539 a long two-storeyed building remains, now within a private school. The church decayed and its lead removed for use at Windsor Castle, so a new home was needed for Edmund of Langley’s tomb. Around 1557 it was dismantled and installed in the parish church and is now its greatest glory. In 1878 it was moved to a new extension to the northeast chapel. The east window’s stained glass was given by Queen Victoria. The Palace itself has vanished but excavation in 1970 found a very large basement wine cellar and other evidence indicates it was built round three large courtyards. It was located at the top of Langley Hill approximately where the current Waldorf and Rudolf Steiner Schools are located. Langleybury House Until the mid-1990s a school, this early Georgian mansion, four-square in brick with a balustraded parapet and urns, was built in the 1720s for the then Lord Chief Justice, Sir Robert Raymond. Its farm is now a Hertfordshire County Council children’s farm, generally open during the school holidays and at weekends.
As Hertfordshire is so close to London, many of its towns have become commuter havens. St Albans, less than 19 miles (30km) from the capital, has retained its distinctive character, along with many historic remains.
