Sandridge

Sandridge is a small village between St Albans and Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire. The village has three pubs: The Green Man, The Rose and Crown and The Queen's Head. The village church is St Leonard's and is thought to date back to 1119. History The earliest recorded mention of Sandridge is in the year 796 the parish being part of the revenue of the Mercian Kings. It was given by Egfrith son of Offa in the first year of his reign to abbot Eadric second abbot of St Alban's Monastery and to the monks of St Albans. The original name was "Saundruage" meaning a place of sandy soil serviced by bond tenants. In 1461 the final skirmishes of the Second Battle of St Albans took place in and around Sandridge as the Earl of Warwick, for the Yorkists, retreated towards Nomansland. Sandridge was one of the earlier homes of the great English general, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and his infamous wife, Sarah, a favourite of Queen Anne. The title Baron Sandridge was given to Churchill by James II in 1685, and was his first English peerage title (his earlier title, Baron Eyemouth, had been created in 1682 by James's predecessor, Charles II, in the Peerage of Scotland).