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Reed
Adjacent Parishes: Barkway, Buckland, Royston, Therfield
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REED. It is one of those small places which send us dreaming down the corridors of time, for it has traces of six moats, some now little more than ponds, from the days when men sought security by surrounding their houses with water. Even today there is no friendly village street, but the houses are scattered with only winding lanes to link them together.
The church is apart in the fields, its nearest neighbour an old farmhouse with an overhanging storey. It is a miniature shrine to which about 30 generations of village folk have come, for the nave was built by the Saxons, and their long-and-short work is at all four corners. They or the Normans made the small but perfect doorway now blocked up in the north wall, a sturdy and well-preserved structure. We enter by a 14th century doorway, pushing open an ancient door four inches thick. The Tower is 15th century, the three bells are all from Shakespeare's day, and the alter table is Jacobean, with massive legs.
Arthur Mee's Hertfordshire
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Reed School The School is still there - see http://www.reed.herts.sch.uk/ for a modern photograph]
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Tom Doig (tomdoig @t aol.com) has written a book "Reed through the Ages" and has much more information on other people who lived in the village.
See also Vital Records
If you know of other books, websites, etc, relating to this place, please tell me.
Page updated December 2004
