Baldock is one of the four towns of North Hertfordshire and has the oldest history of them all. It may have been the first urban place in Britain: a settlement began to develop here before 100 BC, earlier than any other known Iron Age or Roman town. We do not know its name, and it was abandoned after AD 500. The place we know today was founded in the 1140s by the Knights Templar, who established a market here.
History links
Baldock has its own museum, run by the active Local History Society. Visit its website for details of opening times and resources for local history.
The town’s page on the Hertfordshire Memories website.
Family history links
The UK and Ireland Genealogy website explains where to find parish registers.
The Family Search website links to free and subscription resources.
Further Reading
Applebaum, E S 1933 Excavations at Baldock in 1932. Transactions of the St Albans Architectural & Archaeological Society (1932), 244-58
Ashworth, H 1994 A505 Baldock Bypass: Northern Route Fieldwakling Survey Phase 1. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Ashworth, H 1994 A505 Baldock Bypass: Eastern Route Fieldwalking Survey Phase 1. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Atkinson, M, Burleigh, G R & Went, D A 1992 An Archaeological Investigation of the Stationmaster’s House, 16 Station Road, Baldock, Hertfordshire. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Burleigh, G R 1977 Last of the Baldock breweries. Hertfordshire’s Past (2)
Burleigh, G R 1980 A Roman inhumation cemetery, The Tene, Baldock, North Herts. Hertfordshire’s Past (9), 35-7
Burleigh, G R 1982 Excavations at Baldock, 1980-81: an interim report. Hertfordshire’s Past (12), 3-18
Burleigh, G R 1984 Baldock. CBA Group 7 Newsletter 2, 28-33
Burleigh, G R 1993 Some aspects of burial types in the cemeteries of the Romano-British settlement at Baldock, Hertfordshire, England. In: Struck, M ed. Römerzeitliche Gräber als Quellen ze Religion, Bevölkerungsstruktur und Sozialgeschichte: Internationale Fachkonferenz vom 18.-20. Februar 1991 im Institut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Mainz: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Archäologische Schriften 3), 41-9
Burleigh, G R 1995 A Late Iron Age oppidum at Baldock, Hertfordshire. In: Holgate, R (ed.) Chiltern archaeology: recent work. A handbook for the new decade. Dunstable: The Book Castle, 103-112
Burleigh, G R 1995 The plan of Romano-British Baldock. In: Brown, A E (ed. Roman Small Towns in Eastern England and beyond. Oxford: Oxbow (Monogr 52), 177-82
Burleigh, G R & Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J 2010 Excavations at Baldock 1978-1994, volume 1: an Iron Age and Romano-British cemetery at Wallington Road. Letchworth Garden City: North Hertfordshire District Council and North Hertfordshire Archaeological Society
Burleigh, G R, Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J & Aldhouse-Green, M J 2006 A Dea Nutrix figurine from a Romano-British cemetery at Baldock, Hertfordshire. Britannia 37, 273-94
Burleigh, J R, Read, C J & Stevenson, M D 1998 An Archaeological Excavation at 39b High Street, Baldock, Hertfordshire. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Burleigh, G R & Salisbury, M 1985 ‘The Tene’, Baldock, explained. Hertfordshire’s Past (19)
Burleigh, G R & Stevenson, M D 1994 Baldock Bypass: Eastern Route, A505 to A507, Aerial Photographic Assessment Review. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council.
Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J 2007 Subculture and small group identity in Iron Age and Roman Baldock. In: Croxford, B, Ray, N, Roth, R & White, N eds TRAC 2006: Proceedings of the sixteenth Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference Cambridge 2006. Oxford: Oxbow, 150-71
Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J 2009 Collapse, Change or Continuity? Exploring the Three C’s in Sub-Roman Britain. Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 2009, 132–148
Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J 2014 Observation of footings at 67 Clothall Road, Baldock, Hertfordshire. Letchworth Garden City: North Hertfordshire District Council
Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J 2016a The cemeteries of Roman Baldock. Fragments 5
Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J 2016b Odd Pots and Foreigners: Baldock’s ‘missing’ centuries. Part 1. Baldock Mail 233, 25-29
Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J 2016c Odd Pots and Foreigners: Baldock’s ‘missing’ centuries. Part 2. Baldock Mail 234, 25-29
Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J 2018 Roman Baldock: an exhibition at Baldock Museum, May 2018-May 2019
Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K J & Burleigh, G R 2007 Ancient Baldock: the archaeology of an Iron Age and Romano-British town. Letchworth Garden City: North Hertfordshire District Council & North Hertfordshire Archaeological Society
Hillelson, D J 1986 Baker’s Close, Baldock: resistivity survey interim report. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Matthews, K J 1987 Watching Brief at 2 Clothall Road, Baldock: 11/12 June 1987. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Matthews, K J 1989 BAL-45 (20/22 Icknield Way East, Baldock, Hertfordshire) Archive Report. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Offord, A J 1992 Archaeological Watching Brief at 4 Clothall Road, Baldock, Hertfordshire.
Richmond, A D W & Burleigh, G R 1992, Archaeological Investigations at 39a High Street, Baldock. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Richmond, A D W, Went, D A & Burleigh, G R 1992 An Archaeological Evaluation at The Engine Public House, Baldock, Hertfordshire. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Selkirk, A & Selkirk W eds 1983 Baldock. Current Archaeology 8 (3) (No 86), 70-74
Stead, I M 1968 A La Tène III burial at The Tene, Baldock, Herts. Antiquaries Journal 48, 306
Stead, I M 1971 The reconstruction of Iron Age Buckets from Aylesford and Baldock. British Museum Quarterly 35, 250-82
Stead, I M 1975 Baldock. In: Rodwell, W & Rowley, T eds The Small towns of Roman Britain: papers presented to a conference, Oxford, 1975. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 125-9
Stead, I M & Rigby, V 1986 Baldock: the excavation of a Roman and pre-Roman settlement, 1968-72. London: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies (Britannia Monogr 7)
Stevenson, M D 1983 Brewery Field, Baldock 1968. Unpublished dissertation submitted to the University of Reading for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
Stevenson, M D 1994 Archaeological Desktop Assessment, A505 Baldock Bypass, Northern Route. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Stevenson, M D 1994 Archaeological Desktop Assessment, A505 Baldock Bypass, Eastern Route. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Stevenson, M D 1999 The Investigation of a Late Iron Age Pit, 37/39 The Twitchell, Baldock, Hertfordshire. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Went, D A 1994 An Archaeological Evaluation at Providence Way, Baldock, Hertfordshire. Letchworth: North Hertfordshire District Council
Westaway, K 1976 Roman burials at Baldock. Hertfordshire Archaeological Review 10, 190-191
Westell, W P 1926b Finds in a Roman rubbish pit: further excavations in Hertfordshire. The Times, 7 September 1926
Westell, W P 1927b Finds in a Roman rubbish pit: coins and decorated pottery. The Times, 13 May 1927
Westell, W P 1931a A Romano-British Cemetery at Baldock, Hertfordshire. Archaeological Journal 88, 247-301
Westell, W P 1932a Notes on a Romano-British cemetery in Hertfordshire. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 66, 105-113
Westell, W P & Applebaum, E S 1933 Romano-British Baldock: past discoveries and future problems. Journal of the British Archaeological Association 38 (2), 235-77