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Founded first by Alfred’s
son,
Sold by Edith, seized by John
By King and Bishop lost and won,
I was named Esterteferd town.
(Inscription on front of Nags Head Public House, Dunmow Road.)
Archaeological evidence shows that Romans had several roads across
the area, at least one of which crossed the river in the vicinity
of what is now known as the Town Meads.
Contrary to popular thinking, the name Stortford is not derived
from the name of the river, though it is quite likely that the reverse
is true with the river taking its name from the town.
Included in the Doomsday Book as Esterteferd, the name may have
arisen from the personal name, possibly Steorta, (old English, Steort
= tail) of a family or small clan who lived in the vicinity of the
ford in Saxon times and perhaps controlled the crossing.
From c.1600, when the town and its castle were sold to the Bishops
of London, it became known as Bishop’s Esterteferd, which
later became corrupted to the present spelling of Stortford.
In the early 13th century the town became a pawn in th e
disputes between King John and the Pope; the King seizing the town
from the Bishop and ordering the destruction of the castle in 1208
and then, soon after, in 1214, having to pay for it to be rebuilt.
Superbly situated in rural Hertfordshire, right on the border with
Essex, Bishop’s Stortford developed as a small but thriving
market town throughout the Middle Ages, achieving a population of
2,300 by the year 1801.
Famed for its hostelries, of which a large number still exist, and
for being a staging post on the mail coach routes between London
and both Cambridge and Newmarket, the town’s prosperity had
been enhanced by the opening of the Stort to navigation in 1769.
In the middle of the 19th century, by which time the population
had expanded to 5,300, connection to the railway laid the foundation
for Bishop’s Stortford’s present importance as both
a market town in its own right and as a favoured commuter area for
the City of London, which can now be reached in just 35 minutes
by rail.
At the turn of the century the population had increased to over
7,000 and 50 years later, in  1951,
to 12,770. Over the next 30 years to 1981, it almost doubled again
to just under 23,000, but even this rate of increase was dwarfed
by the growth which took place over the next 10 years. Largely influenced
by the development of Thorley Park, the 1991 census showed that
Bishop’s Stortford by then had a population of 27,870.
Later came further developments of 1,030 dwellings at Bishop’s
Park and 900 at St Michael’s Mead in 1994. In early 2009 the
population was 38,000.
Despite the impressive growth which has already taken place, the
retention of over 90 acres of parks and open spaces as ‘green
wedges’ into the centre of the town from the Metropolitan
Green Belt that surrounds it, has prevented excessive urbanisation.
Despite the further growth being inevitable, both the Town and District
Councils are adamant that Bishop’s Stortford will not lose
its identity as a traditional market town in which the quality of
life of its people is the paramount consideration.
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