Baldock is a historic market town within the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the ceremonial county of Hertfordshire, England where the River Ivel rises. It is located 33 miles (53 kilometres) north of London, and features a population of around 9900. Nearby towns are Royston to the northeast, Letchworth and Hitchin to the southwest and Stevenage to the south. The modern layout of the town and many buildings in the centre date from the sixteenth century, with the earliest dating back to the fourteenth century. The town thrived where the old Great North Road and the Icknield Way crossed. Regardless of the construction of the A1(M) motorway in 1963, which bypassed the town, and which was named the Baldock Bypass for some years, it was still a significant 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 3 big brewers still trading in the area at the end of the 19th century, despite a drop in demand for the varieties of beer made locally. The 1881 Census records around thirty drinking establishments. Throughout the early 20th century, a sizeable number of pubs continued to operate, many of which were sustained by the adjacent and much bigger town of Letchworth, which had no alcohol retailers prior to 1958, and had only two pubs and 1 hotel bar until the mid-1990s. Its larger population had for a lot of years visited both Baldock and Hitchin for refreshment. For all your home improvement projects, be sure that you use vetted specialists in Baldock to make sure you get the very best quality service.