DIGSWELL LODGE and its environs are steeped in history. In Roman times the first Great North Road skirted the area and in the eighth century the Saxons founded the village of Dicen’s Well or Digswell. The first farmer to cultivate the land upon which Digswell Lodge now stands was named Torchil.

William the Conqueror gifted Torchil’s land to Geoffrey de Mandeville. The farm totalled 330 acres, almost identical to its size in 1919 when it was sold to the Welwyn Garden City Company.

The estate became Crown Property under Henry V but in 1414 it was purchased by John Perient of Brittany. A wealthy man, he and his family settled in Digswell. Eventually Digswell Estate was sold to George Horsey, husband of Mary Perient, and then in 1656 it was purchased by Humphrey Shalcross.

Humphrey Shalcross became High Sheriff of Hertfordshire during Puritan times and set about building the magnificent Digswell Lodge for his daughter, Margaret, in keeping with the domestic architecture of the time.

The Lodge remained in the ownership of the Shalcross family until 1786 when it passed to Lord Cowper of Panshanger,
who let it to tenant farmers.

After its sale in 1919 to the Welwyn Garden City Company it was purchased by ICI in 1943 for use as a director’s guest house and in the 1990s it became a residential home for the elderly.

Now, with the renovation and conversion of its four wings into three luxury apartments and an exquisite penthouse, each retaining many of the house’s distinctive 17th century features, Digswell Lodge is on the verge of a new era and you could be part of it.

DIGSWELL GARDEN COTTAGES are situated in the exclusive grounds of Digswell Lodge, which, along with the original Digswell Farm, has been steeped in history over two millennia. It seems appropriate, therefore, that the ten garden cottages should be named after the people and families connected with the estate over the centuries.

Torchil, Mandeville, Perient and Shalcross have been assigned to the newly converted wings in the Lodge itself. But with so many names of both the rich and powerful, farmers and peasant folk associated with Digswell Lodge since the 10th century, the following have been selected for Digswell Garden Cottages.

• Lyle Cottage & St Mary Savoy Cottage
• St Michael Cottage, De Bohun Cottage, Lawrence Cottage & Cowper Cottage
• Goddard Cottage & Goldyngton Cottage
• Melksop Cottage & Sedley Cottage
  

In the specifications, brief accounts are given about the people after whom the cottages are named.