Towns & Villages in Herts

The Bottoms of Hertfordshire

Many place names in Hertfordshire end with the descriptive word Bottom and to illustrate the variety the following have been gathered from the 1881 census listing (c) and Place-names in Hertfordshire (p). For (x) see footnotes:

Note that Place-names in Hertfordshire is concerned with the origins of the names so that in cases such as Buckhill Bottom, Buckhill is listed so the book does not list obviously derived names. Only the "Bottom" entries that are explicitly mentioned in the index are noted in the above table.

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Boggy Bottom, Abbots Langley: Paula Morris (pjmorris @t wans.net) wrote: I noticed a question mark next to Boggy Bottom.  Some of my Groom ancestors were listed in the Kings Langley parish registers as living at Buggy Bottom, Abbotts Langley.  It's possible I was mistaken and it really was Boggy, but it looked like Buggy to me.  Either way, it's in Abbotts Langley. She latter confirmed that it is Boggy Bottom in the1851 census.

Holy Bottom, Nr Abbots Langley: As a result of Paula's helpful message I decided to check several maps to see if I could find Boggy Bottom. A recent road map produced nothing but Dury and Andrews 1766 produced a Holy Bottom close to Abbots Langley Place - and presumably in Abbots Langley Parish.

Pat Lee (threefarraline @t btinternet.com) writes:  Yesterday (8th January 2005) I visited Boggy Bottom under guidance from my Mother who remembers it well. The location is Lower Road, Nash Mills. Heading towards Abbots Langley on the right is the village hall, then a field, then 5 sets of semi-detached houses called Shaffords Cottages. Apparently the field and the cottages form Boggy Bottom.

My Great Grandparents lived at Shaffords cottages (I have some photographs but apart from some refurbishment they are pretty well unchanged) and my mother remembers as a child when being taken to visit them she was always told that they were going to Boggy Bottom. It seems that in the 1901 census the enumerator listed this as Shaffords Bottom which means that Boggy and Shafford are one  and the same.

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Trotters Bottom, Potters Bar: Tom Rainbow (rtomrainbow @t hotmail.com) writes There's a Trotters Bottom outside Barnet which used to be in Herts: does that count for your bottoms page?. Vivvy (vivvywestwood @t aol.com) later pointed out that it is in Potters Bar.

In fact the old county boundary was quite complex in the Barnet area, and a check shows that it used to be in Middlesex but is now in Hertfordshire. As such it is appropriate to include it as a footnote to this list.

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John  Wassell (j.wassell @t which.net) writes: The 1843 tithe map for Wheathampstead shows "bottom field" and house on Cross Lane. The field boundary is still visible from the lane and on modern maps (unnamed-between the railway and Cross Farm). The house is not shown on later maps.

I have checked several source and can find no reference - it is not in the Wheathampstead field names listed in Place-names in Hertfordshire. However it does not surprise me, and I suspect that if one started to comb the tithe and enclosure maps in HALS one would find many other examples.

If you can add to the information given above tell me.

Updated January 2006
June 2009 - minor editorial changes