Letchworth was designed at the beginning of the century as the first garden city, founded by Ebenezer Howard in 1903. He said the concept of a garden city was a ‘harbinger of a new age’, but was proved wrong, given that only one other was created - Welwyn Garden City, also in Hertfordshire. Today, Letchworth is a growing residential, commercial and industrial town.
Nearby Baldock is almost exclusively residential and contains many Georgian and older buildings. It stands close to the sites of iron age and Roman settlements on Stane Street, and as a market town, its first recorded charter dates to about 442. The main feature of the town is the parish church of St. Mary, which is a spacious building in the town centre with its large 14th Century west tower.
Royston, on the border with Cambridgeshire, grew up at the intersection of the Icknield Way and the Roman Ermine Street and is a traditional market town whose market rights were first granted in 1189 and survive to this day. The growth of light industry in the town in recent years has been accompanied by the development of new housing in both the public and private sectors.