Baldock
Baldock is a historic market town in the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the ceremonial county of Hertfordshire, England where the River Ivel rises. It lies 33 miles (53 km) north of London, and features a population of about 9900. Nearby towns are Royston to the northeast, Letchworth and Hitchin to the southwest and Stevenage towards the south. The modern layout of the town and numerous buildings in the centre date back to the sixteenth century, with the oldest dating from the fourteenth century. The town thrived where the old Great North Road and the Icknield Way crossed. Regardless of the building of the A1(M) motorway in 1963, which bypassed the town, and which was named the Baldock Bypass for some years, it was nonetheless a major traffic bottleneck until March 2006, when a new bypass removed the A505 road, a part of the old Icknield Way to the east of Baldock. Since the 16th century, Baldock has been a centre for malting, subsequently becoming a regional brewing centre with no less than three big brewers still manufacturing at the end of the 19th century, despite a drop in demand for the varieties of beer produced locally. The 1881 Census notes around 30 drinking establishments. During the early twentieth century, a large number of pubs continued to operate, several of which were sustained by the adjacent and significantly bigger town of Letchworth, which had no alcohol retailers before 1958, and had only two pubs and a single hotel bar until the mid-1990s. Its bigger population had for a lot of years visited both Baldock and Hitchin for refreshment. For all of your home improvements, make sure that you employ trustworthy specialists in Baldock to ensure you get the best quality service.