Oliver Twist and all that part 2

"It was nine o'clock at night when the man...turned down the hill by the church of the quiet village..."



The church is that of St Etheldreda's and has parts dating back to the 13th century. The house in front looks late 19th early, 20th century. In the third picture you see the gateway into the Old Palace of Hatfield, a medieval house for the Bishops of Ely. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII it came into royal possession. Elizabeth I was living there when she heard of her accession in 1558. James I swapped it for Robert Cecil's house, Theobalds, near Cheshunt. Robert pulled down most of it and replaced it with the current Hatfield House. It mostly comprises flats now.

Bill Sykes would have passed by its frontage and turning by the church he would have seen a street of shops, this being the main part of Hatfield at the time. These disappeared when the Great North Road was re-routed and business dried up.