Editing Tring (section)

==History==
[[File:SS Peter and Paul, Tring from the Rose and Crown - geograph.org.uk - 706204.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Church of St Peter and St Paul, Tring]], viewed from the Rose and Crown]]
[[File:Tring High Street, 19th century.jpg|thumb|left|Tring High Street in the 19th century]]
There is evidence of [[Prehistoric Britain|prehistoric settlement]] with [[Iron Age]] [[Tumulus|barrows]] and defensive embankments adjacent to [[The Ridgeway]], and also later Saxon burials.<ref name="thisisTring">{{cite web |url=http://gerald-massey.org.uk/tring/ |title=This is Tring |website=Gerald-Massey.org.uk |access-date=30 March 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130414081350/http://gerald-massey.org.uk/tring/ |archive-date=2013-04-14}}</ref> The town straddles the Roman road called [[Akeman Street]], running through as the High Street.
Tring was the dominant settlement in the area, being the primary settlement in the ''[[List of hundreds of England|Hundred of Tring]]'' at the time of the [[Domesday Book]] (1086).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://domesdaymap.co.uk/hundred/tring/|access-date=3 April 2015|title=Hundred: Tring  |website=Domesdaymap.co.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008183236/http://domesdaymap.co.uk/hundred/tring/|archive-date=8 October 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> Tring had a large population and paid a large amount of tax relative to most settlements listed in that survey.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP9211/tring/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150416185334/http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/SP9211/tring/|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 April 2015|title=Place: Tring |website=Domesdaymap.co.uk |access-date=3 April 2015}}</ref> Landholdings included the manor of Treunga,<ref name="british-history.ac.uk"/> assigned to [[Eustace II, Count of Boulogne|Count Eustace II of Boulogne]] by [[William the Conqueror]].

In 1315 the town was granted a [[market charter]] by [[Edward II of England|Edward II]]. This charter gave [[Faversham Abbey]] the right to hold weekly markets on Tuesdays, and a ten-day fair starting on 29 June, the [[Feast of Saints Peter and Paul]]. It also prevented the creation of any rival markets within a day's travel of the town.<ref name="tringcharter700">Tring Charter 700. ''Tring Town Crier'', April 2015</ref> The tower of the Church of St Peter and St Paul was built between 1360 and 1400.<ref name="tringcharter700"/>

Until 1440, there was a small village east of Tring called Pendley (or ''Penley'', ''Pendele'', or ''Pentlai''). The landowner Sir Robert Whittingham received a grant of [[free warren]] from [[Henry VI of England|King Henry VI]]. He [[enclosure|enclosed]] 200 acres (about 80 hectares) and tore down the buildings on the land, returning the estate to [[pasture]], and built a manor house, [[Pendley Manor]]. This house was variously inhabited by the [[Verney family|Verney]], [[Anderson baronets|Anderson]] and [[House of Harcourt|Harcourt]] families until the mid-19th century.<ref name="HertsGene">{{cite web |title=Pendley Manor  |url=http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/places/places-t/tring/tring-pendley.htm |website=Hertfordshire Genealogy|access-date=27 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027094921/http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/places/places-t/tring/tring-pendley.htm|archive-date=27 October 2017|date=July 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Tring Park Mansion]] was designed by Sir [[Christopher Wren]] and was built in 1682 for the owner Henry Guy, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to [[Charles II of England|Charles II]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Colvin |first=Howard |title=A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects |edition=3rd |date=1995}} ''s.v.'' "Wren, Sir Christopher": "probably c. 1680". Remodelled 1872 onwards. A surviving obelisk and temple portico in the park are presumably by [[James Gibbs]], for William Gore (Colvin, ''s.v.'' "Gibbs, James").</ref> [[John Washington]], the son of the Reverend Lawrence Washington and Amphyllis Twigden, was born and brought up in Tring. In 1656 he left Tring to go on a trading voyage to [[Virginia]], but after a shipwreck on the [[Potomac River]] he remained in Virginia, married and started a family which eventually included his great-grandson, [[George Washington]], the first [[President of the United States]].<ref name="washingtonsoftring">{{cite web|url=http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/books/books-6/book-0632-washingtons-of-tring.htm |title=The Washingtons of Tring |first=Murray |last=Neil |website=Hertfordshire Genealogy|access-date=3 April 2015}}</ref>
The town's prosperity was greatly improved at the start of the 19th century by the construction nearby of the [[Grand Junction Canal]], and soon afterwards in 1835 the [[London and Birmingham Railway]]. Industries which benefited included [[flour|flour milling]], [[brewing]], [[silk|silk weaving]], [[lace|lace-making]] and [[straw plaiting]].<ref name="thisisTring" />

In 1835, the medieval Pendley Manor was destroyed by fire. A local landowner, Joseph Grout Williams, commissioned a new manor house to be built in [[Jacobethan|Jacobean Revival style]], and this building still stands today on Station Road.<ref name="Ourhist">{{cite web|title=Our Story|url=http://www.pendley-manor.co.uk/about-pendley-manor/our-story/|website=Pendley Manor|access-date=27 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027110057/http://www.pendley-manor.co.uk/about-pendley-manor/our-story/|archive-date=27 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1836 Thomas Butcher, a [[wholesale]] [[seed]] and [[Cereal|corn]] [[merchant]], and his son also called Thomas, established a [[private bank]], Thomas Butcher & Son in Tring High Street. The business was subsequently run by the next generation of the family, Frederick and George, and was also known locally as Tring Old Bank. By 1900 it had branches in [[Aylesbury]], [[Chesham]] and [[Berkhamsted]]. From this time it became the subject of successive bank consolidations, eventually becoming a branch of the [[NatWest|National Westminster Bank]], the last to be represented in the town.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://heritagearchives.rbs.com/wiki/Thomas_Butcher_%26_Sons%2C_Tring%2C_c.1836-1900 |title=Thomas Butcher & Sons, Tring, c.1836–1900 |website=RBS Heritage Online |access-date=29 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520235829/http://heritagearchives.rbs.com/wiki/Thomas_Butcher_%26_Sons%2C_Tring%2C_c.1836-1900 |archive-date=20 May 2012}}</ref>

[[File:The Market House, Tring - geograph.org.uk - 1478727.jpg|thumb|left|[[Tring Market House]]]]
[[File:Walter-zebra-cart 11173 2.jpg|thumb|Walter Rothschild and his carriage drawn by zebras]]
In the late 19th century the estate became the home of the [[Rothschild family]], whose influence on the town was considerable. The site for [[Tring Market House]] was presented by to the town by [[Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tringlocalhistory.org.uk/Kelly%201937/index.htm|title=Tring|publisher=Kelly's Directory for Hertfordshirew|year=1937|access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref> His son, [[Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild]], built a private zoological museum in Tring. This housed what may have been the world's largest collection of animal taxidermy at the time of its founding. It has been part of the [[Natural History Museum, London]] since 1937, and in April 2007 the museum changed its name to the [[Natural History Museum at Tring]] in order to make people more aware of the museum's link to London's Natural History Museum. In 1902 the 2nd Lord Rothschild also released the [[edible dormouse]] (Glis glis) into Tring Park. He used to ride around the town in a carriage drawn by [[zebra]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nhm.ac.uk/tring/history-collections/index.html |title=Zebra-drawn carriage driven by Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild |website=National History Museum, Tring |access-date=11 June 2009}}</ref> In the town centre of Tring there is a pavement maze in the shape of a Zebra's head in order to remember the link that Tring has to the Rothschild family.

The former livestock market place is now the home of a weekly Friday market and a fortnightly Saturday [[farmers' market]]. Some of the former livestock pens have been retained. The old livestock market office is now the home of the Tring Local History Museum, which opened in September 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tringlocalhistorymuseum.org.uk/index.html |title=Home| website=Tring Local History Museum |access-date=9 October 2010}}</ref>