Ware is an ancient site with real historical significance

Many archaeological finds have shown that the Ware area has been occupied since at least the Mesolithic period, which ended about 4000 BC. The Romans had a large settlement at Ware and foundations of some buildings, including a temple, and two cemeteries have been unearthed at various digs in and around the town. Ware was on Ermine Street, the famous Roman road from London to Lincoln. A very well preserved Roman skeleton of a teenage girl was found beside the road in Ware and was subsequently nicknamed ‘Ermintrude’. It has been stated by historians that Ware is one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in the whole of Europe.

In the Domesday Book of 1086, Ware was actually named Waras, from the natural weirs that occurred in the River Lea. The historic rivalry with nearby Hertford can be traced back to 1090 when the Lady of Ware, the honourable Petronilla de Grandmesnil, Countess of Leicester, diverted Ermine Street from the Roman ford to create a High Street and new bridge over the river. The bailiff of Hertford tried to destroy the new bridge before it was recognised as part of the King’s Highway by Henry III in person. In 1381, during the so-called Peasants’ Revolt, forty two prominent Ware townsmen, led by the Vicar, joined others in destroying Hertford Castle, which was then owned by John of Gaunt.

Countless inns were established in the High Street of Ware. This was owing to the fact that Ware was a significant coaching stop on the Old North Road. Geoffrey Chaucer mentioned the town of Ware twice in The Canterbury Tales. The Great Bed of Ware, cited by Shakespeare and other playwrights, was housed in a succession of Ware inns.

Tudor executions took place in Ware

The eldest daughter of King Henry VIII, who went on to become Mary I, had Thomas Fust burned at the stake in Ware marketplace for refusing to convert to Catholicism.

The Ware Mutiny

During the 17th century, Ware became the source of the New River, which was constructed to take fresh water into London. The Ware Mutiny occurred on 15 November 1647, between the First and the Second English Civil War at Corkbush Field, when soldiers were ordered to sign a declaration of loyalty to Thomas Fairfax. Thomas was the commander-in-chief of the New Model Army, and the Army Council. When some with Leveller sympathies refused to do this they were arrested, and one of the ringleaders, Trooper Richard Arnold, was court-martialled and shot.

Background to the Ware Mutiny

After the Putney Debates, the Army commanders Oliver Cromwell and Fairfax were concerned about the strength of support which the Levellers had in the New Model Army. They decided to impose the Heads of Proposals as the army’s manifesto, instead of the Levellers’ Agreement of the People.

To accomplish this they demanded that every soldier sign a declaration of loyalty, both to Fairfax as commander-in-chief, and to the Army Council, which signified that they accepted the Heads of the Proposals as the Army’s manifesto. Many of the men were willing to sign, even if they had Leveller sympathies, because Cromwell and Fairfax promised that Parliament would honour the back payments they were owed. It was suggested that if they did not sign then the army could not present a united front to Parliament and payment could be delayed and that some regiments might be disbanded with no back pay at all. The declaration was a politically astute move because the soldiers were now bound to the Army Council and not the King or Parliament.

Ware houses great fire displaced

Like many other areas near to the capital, Ware played a part in helping house those who had been made homeless by the Great fire if London. Sixty two of these children were sent to live in Ware after the Great Fire of London.

The Rye House Plot and Ware

The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother and heir to the throne, James, Duke of York. The royal party went from Westminster to Newmarket to watch horse races and were expected to make the return journey on 1 April 1683, but because there was a major fire in Newmarket on 22 March, which destroyed half the town, the races were cancelled, and the King and the Duke returned to London early. As a result, the planned attack never took place. It was planned that the attack would occur after the Royal Party had passed through Ware.

Historians tend to disagree in their opinion of the degree to which details of the conspiracy were finalised. Whatever the state of the assassination plot, plans to mount a rebellion against the Stuart monarchy were being seriously considered by some opposition leaders in England. The government cracked down hard on those in a series of state trials, accompanied with severe and crushing measures and widespread searches for arms.

Ware sees the first toll road in England

England’s first turnpike road, now more commonly referred to as a toll road was established at Wadesmill, two miles north of Ware. The toll opened in 1633 in an attempt to control the malting traffic travelling into and from Ware. Ware had become a major malt making centre during the Civil War and soon became the most important supplier of malt to the Common Brewers of London, with its own quoted price on the London grain market, particularly for brown malt, used in brewing porter beer. The Ordnance Survey First Edition of 1880 showed 107 malt kilns in Ware, more than twice as many as in any other Hertfordshire town. The last working malting in Ware, Pauls Malt at Broadmeads, closed in 1994. In November 1999, the bronze Malt maker statue by Oxfordshire sculptor, Jill Tweed, was unveiled outside St Mary’s Church to commemorate the end of the industry and the Millennium.

At the end of the 19th century, malt-making in Ware was joined by two other industries. In 1886, Dennis Wickham, member of a brewing family, established a bottling plant which in 1900 moved to Viaduct Road and became an engineering company. The world-famous firm of D. Wickham & Co. became manufacturers of railcars and construction equipment, closing eventually in 1991. In 1898, the pharmaceutical company, Allen & Hanburys, acquired a lease on the Ware corn mill and began building a medicines, dried milk and health foods factory at the nearby Buryfield. A new plant for pharmaceutical research and development was built in Park Road during World War II. Allenburys, as it was known, was merged with Glaxo in 1958 and is now part of GlaxoSmithKline, whose headquarters are located just a few miles from Ware.