ASTON (21/4 miles N.E. from Knebworth Station, G.N.R.) has an ancient church restored in 1883.  There is E.E. work in parts of nave and chancel, but other portions are largely Perp., especially the tower, which is embattled.  The alabaster reredos and several memorial windows are worth notice; nor should visitors overlook the brass at the foot of the chancel steps to one John Kent, his wife and ten children.  This worthy died in 1592; he was a servant of Edward VI., Mary and Elizabeth.  The village is scattered upon a hill a little W. from the river Beane, and dates from Saxon times.  The manor was once owned by three men under the protection of Archbishop Stigand; afterwards by the Abbot of Reading.  It fell to the Crown at the Dissolution, like so many other properties.

Aston Bury is a fine manor house of red brick, about 3/4 mile S. from the village, formerly the property of the Boteler family.  The prospect from the N. windows is a noble one, the district being varied and undulating.

Aston End, a hamlet 1 mile N.W. from Aston, may be reached from Stevenage Station, G.N.R., about 21/2 miles.  There is little here of interest, but the neighbourhood is very pleasant and largely agricultural.

Astrope Hamlet (1/2 mile E. from Puttenham) is midway between the village of Long Marston and the Aylesbury Canal.  It is close to the Bucks border.

Astwick Farm is 2 miles N.W. from Hatfield Station, G.N.R.

Attimore Hall is 11/2 mile S.W. from Welwyn Station, G.N.R.

Aubrey Camp (3/4 mile S.W. from Redbourn) is conjectured to be the site of an early British encampment.

Austage End lies in the parish of King’s Walden, in a purely agricultural district.

Ayot Green is about 1/2 mile S.E. from and in the parish of Ayot St. Peter’s (q.v.).

AYOT ST. LAWRENCE (21/2 miles N.E. from Wheathampstead Station and about the same distance N.W. from Ayot Station, G.N.R.) has a new and an old church.  The former is in Ayot Park, and was designed by Revett in a classical style.  Note (1) the Eastern portico, with colonnade on either side; (2) the memorial to Sir Lionel Lyde, Bart. (d. 1791), and to the architect of the church (d. 1804).  The earlier structure, still in ruins near the middle of the village, was Dec. of an early period, with several singular features; the tower, however, was Perp.  “The Windows ... have been adorn’d with curious Pictures, in stained and painted Glass, beyond many other Churches.”  The village has at different times been styled Eye, Aiot, Great Aiot, and Ayot St. Lawrence, and was a parcel of the property of Harold Godwin. Ayot House, standing in a beautiful park of 200 acres, was once the property and residence of Sir William Parr, brother to Catherine Parr, Queen of Henry VIII.  A room in an older building in the rear of the present mansion was once, according to local tradition, the prison of Catherine Parr.  There are shoes at Ayot House which belonged to Anne Boleyn and a hat of Henry VIII.