Pretty Drive through Potters Crouch

Once you’ve picked up your vehicle from St. Albans Car and Van Hire, if it’s a scenic route towards the M1 you’re after, then a drive through Potters Crouch is the way to go.

Designated as a conservation area in 1977, this small rural hamlet to the south west of St. Albans and to the west of Chiswell Green, is as picturesque as it gets for a village so close to the motorway. The country roads are surrounded by built-up hedgerows, open fields and countryside, and mature trees, many of which are European larch and beech trees, planted by the Crown Estates in the 1930s.

The lands surrounding Potters Crouch historically belonged to the Earl of Verulam and were passed to the Crown Estates in 1931. However, the wider Potters Crouch area was part of a Late Iron Age and Roman landscape, and an Iron Age/early 1st Century AD brooch and knife have been found in the area. The brooch is now kept at the Verulamium Museum and the knife at the British Museum.

The hamlet as it currently stands was originally developed around two of its farms – Potters Crouch Farm and East Farm. There are six entries in the list of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest which are located in the Potters Crouch Conservation Area, one of which is the Holly Bush pub, an important landmark at the junction of Ragged Hall Lane and Potters Crouch Lane. The pub creates a prominent feature within the village and marks the north eastern edge of the hamlet.

Covered in beautiful Wisteria, the pub has been described as “An archetype olde English pub, with beautiful wooden interior, full of antique furniture that is so highly polished you don’t want to put your glass down!” With traditional and locally sourced food served daily, it might also be worth a visit before you set off on your journey, or before dropping your vehicle back to us at St. Albans Car and Van Hire.