Puckeridge is a village in East Hertfordshire, England with a population of 3,561. It is in the civil parish of Standon. The earliest known settlement was founded by the Catavellauni, Celts from north-eastern France. The Celts began to arrive around 250 BC. The Belgae arrived around 180 BC. A Roman town existed just to the north of the existing village and the village is at the cross roads of two major Roman roads, Ermine Street and Stane Street. By 200AD the Romans had built a town, at the north of the current village, called Ad Fines. It was a regional capital and was also the start point for the roads to St Albans and Baldock – all important pre-Roman Celtic centres. Ad Fines had a large temple dedicated to Minerva. It also had at least two bath houses on the banks of the River Rib. The town survived until the end of the 5th century. The neighbouring villages of Standon and Braughing are recorded in the Domesday Book but Puckeridge is not although it was probably in existence. It survived the Black Death in the 14th century. A number of charities were established in Puckeridge in the 17th century, which gave grants of land that enabled the expansion of the village. The village developed and thrived because it was on the coaching route between London and Cambridge; Samuel Pepys records that he stopped at the Falcon. Eventually the coming of the railway in the 19th century led to a decline in the fortune of the many Taverns and Inns in the village. The village is now a popular place to live close to good road networks leading into and around London. The village shares its name with HMS Puckeridge, a Hunt class destroyer which was lost to enemy action during World War II. The village houses three schools, small convenience stores and two pubs with a mixture of old and relatively new houses. Near Puckeridge, there was Puckeridge DECCA tower, a free-standing tower radiator used for DECCA.
Trivia
Puckeridge is the name of a third-string theater critic in Tom Stoppard's drama The Real Inspector Hound.
