High Quality Pergolas in Baldock
What is a pergola?
A pergola is an outdoor structure consisting of columns that support a roofing grid of beams and rafters, they are frequently manufactured out of wood. This roofing grid may be left open or covered so as to create an area sheltered from the weather. Pergolas may be freestanding or attached to a house.
In order to gain a better understanding of what a pergola actually is, it is useful to compare and contrast it with other outdoor structures with which pergolas are sometimes associated with.
Some other outdoor structures
Arbours, gazebos, trellises, latticework and carports
Arbours and pergolas: A distinction!
An arbour is a very popular landscaping structure that is very similar to a pergola, but there are differences between the two. Garden arbours are generally rather simple structures, they tend to lack architectural embellishments such as masonry columns.
Arbours are also relatively small compared to the pergola, and they often have curved arches at the top.
Are increasingly being made from vinyl, rather than more traditional materials.
Arbours are also generally freestanding structures, sometimes attached to a fence or bridge a gap in a wall, in which case they sometimes house a gate.
Pergolas, by contrast, are typically larger structures, often in every dimension. Pergolas sometimes exhibit masonry columns. Their tops are usually flat.
Traditional pergola design traces its origin from the grand masonry pergolas of the Italian Renaissance. But the term, pergola is used more loosely these days, and includes wooden structures. Pergolas are also frequently attached to houses. This is why they are so popular, as they provide an outdoor living space that adequately operates as an extension of a home’s indoor rooms.
So, to answer the question as to what a pergola is, the main difference with an arbour and a pergola is that an arbour is a free-standing structure, whereas a pergola is a structure over a garden pathway.
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Baldock and the legendary Knights Templars
Baldock was actually founded by the Knights Templar, a reminder of this fact remains today in the name of the Baldock secondary school.
Baldock was a thriving and busy medieval market town in the 1140s. Much trade would have been carried out there as it was on a direct route to the capital.
Baldock was designed and laid out by the Knights Templar on land in the manor of Weston in the hundred of Broadwater. The land that was to become officially known as Baldock was granted to the Templar Knights by the earl of Pembroke, Gilbert de Clare, before his death in 1148. The 1850 tithe map, drawn up before the parish boundaries were extended in the later 19th century, clearly shows the boundaries of the land grant made from the manor of Weston in the 12th century; it is a triangular parcel of land beside the old Roman Road, cut out from an older estate.
There is a common story surrounding the origin of the name Baldock. This tale suggests that the name Baldock is a derivation from the Old French name for Baghdad. Now this seems a little strange at first, but when you consider where the Templar Knights had travelled and fought, it becomes more plausible.
Historic records do not place the Templar Knights in Baghdad at all, but they would have been made fully aware of its significance as a city and maybe they had every intention to invade and convert the population to Christianity. Baghdad was widely regarded as the most prosperous market in the world and maybe the Templars hoped that the name would confer a similar prosperity on their own market town of Baldock back in England.
Founding contemporaneous documents use the spelling Baudac, but it is first recorded as “Baldac” in the Pipe Rolls of Hertfordshire in 1168.
Baldock after the Crusades
Baldock was built by the Knights Templars before the reign of Henry III. Henry III was also known as Henry of Winchester and he was King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine from 1216 until his death in 1272.
Baldock was an arbitrary name given by the Knights Templars when they made their settlement and built here. To further the Middle Eastern connection with Baldock it has been written that the grant of the land was made to the Templar Knights by Gilbert, Earl of Pembroke, in the time of Stephen; and reference is made to the name of Bagdet or Baldach, near Babylon, where the Templar Knights were ejected by the Saracens.
Many historians consider it more likely that the Knights Templar used a name already in use, particularly since Baldock was already a crossroads. In addition the settlement was already thriving as a late Anglo-Saxon part of Weston.
Alternative explanations have been also been suggested, including Middle English balled, meaning “bald”, together with Old English āc, meaning “oak”. Baldock may have been identified by a large old tree near the Anglo-Saxon graveyard or where the Templar church was built; and an Old English personal name of Bealdoc, from beald, meaning “bold”, may be more correct than the Baghdad theory. Whatever the truth is to the origin of the name of Baldock, all the stories remain interesting and provoke many a debate among historians and locals to this day.