1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hoddesdon

HODDESDON, an urban district in the Hertford parliamentary division of Hertfordshire, England, near the river Lea, 17 m. N. from London by the Great Eastern railway (Broxbourne and Hoddesdon station on the Cambridge line). Pop. (1901), 4711. This is the northernmost of a series of populous townships extending from the suburbs of London along the Lea valley as far as its junction with the Stort, which is close to Hoddesdon. They are in the main residential. Hoddesdon was a famous coaching station on the Old North Road; and the Bull posting-house is mentioned in Matthew Prior’s “Down Hall.” The Lea has been a favourite resort of anglers (mainly for coarse fish in this part) from the time of Izaak Walton, in whose book Hoddesdon is specifically named. The church of St Augustine, Broxbourne, is a fine example of Perpendicular work, and contains interesting monuments, including an altar tomb with enamelled brasses of 1473. Hoddesdon probably covers the site of a Romano-British village.