Thrale history

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In earlier times Sandridge Parish was bigger than it is now. It stretched from the corner of Sandpit Lane and Sandridge Road, over Bernards Heath, down the hill, through the village and out in a north-easterly direction to Coleman Green, then continuing north over the Lea and over the road from Wheathampstead to Codicote and on past Bridehall to within half a mile of the church of Ayot St Lawrence. The length of the parish was nearly six miles in a direct line; the narrowest part was and is by Coleman Green, where the sides come close together to form a neck just half a mile across. The total area was 5,708 acres. Such was the extent of the parish as shown on the tithe map of 1842; the St. Albans Abbey records of the fifteenth century confim these boundaries. They remained unchanged until 1905, when St. Saviour’s Parish was formed out of the southern end of Sandridge. In 1923 part of the northern end was transferred to Ayot St. Lawrence. With the formation of the Parish Council in 1895, it took over the civil administration of the parish; in 1935 a section of the northern part of the parish was from thereon administered by the Wheathampstead Parish Council, and as the city of St. Albans expanded, so did the civil parish of Sandridge lessen.