Amwell, Hertfordshire

The Anglican church is dedicated to St John the Baptist. The East India College was founded here in 1806, for the education of young men intended for the civil service of the East India Company in India. It is now a public school, Haileybury College.

The New River runs through the village.

On a hill above the church is an ancient mound, the remains of a fortification; and to the west, on the road to Hertford, is a large tumulus.

A hamlet called Amwell also exists a mile south west of Wheathampstead, also in Hertfordshire.

In August 2016 Hertfordshire's newest visitor attraction opened in Great Amwell within the grounds of the Van Hage Leisure Garden centre. Ventura Wildlife’s Zoological Gardens is one of the UK’s newest and most interactive small zoos and is currently set within approximately 2 acres of Hertfordshire countryside. This unique zoo offers visitors of all ages and abilities the chance to get up close to a variety of wild animals. The zoo is home to many animal species including; grants zebra, ring-tailed lemurs, red-fronted lemurs, red kangaroo (the first to be kept in Hertfordshire in over 150 years), wallaby, emu, Burmese python and reindeer. Highlight species housed within the collection include the only Cuban Hutia currently exhibited in a UK zoo and fossa, Madagascar's largest carnivore. Ventura Wildlife's Zoological Gardens participates within the EEP for fossa as is involved in many other conservation initiatives both locally and internationally. As with all good zoos education plays a key role within this zoo and it is a proud institutional member of the International Zoo Educators Association. The zoo has recently completed its own education and conference centre known as the 'Explorers Lodge' themed on the 1930-1950s era of exploration and adventure.

The zoo is open all year round and offers a range of daily keeper talks, animal feeds and interactive animal encounter shows. During the winter 2016–17 season the zoo will be opening Critter Cover and indoor area featuring 18 exhibits displaying exotic bugs, reptiles and small mammals from around the World.

Ventura Wildlife's Zoological Gardens is owned and operated by Ventura Wildlife an organisation based in Enfield dedicated to allowing people to discover nature.

The village has no railway station, the nearest being Ware or St Margarets both of which are on the Hertford East branch line which passes through the parish. There are a few bus routes, these are:

• Arriva Shires & Essex route 310 Hertford-Waltham Cross which operates every 30 minutes Monday to Friday daytime and,[2]
• Arriva Shires & Essex route 311 Hertford-Waltham Cross which operates every 30 minutes Monday to Friday daytime and,[3]
• Centrebus route 351 Hertford-Bishops Stortford which operates every two hours Monday to Saturday Daytime and hourly Monday to Friday peak hours,[4]
• SM Coaches route 524 Harlow-Hertford which operates hourly Monday to Saturday daytime
• Arriva Shires & Essex Green Line route 724 Harlow-Heathrow Airport which operates hourly daily.

Great Amwell has been the residence of some celebrated literary characters, among whom are:

• Izaak Walton , (1593–1683) the noted angler .
• John Scott of Amwell , (1730–83), author of several poems and tracts , who built a grotto containing several apartments, which still exists.
• John Hoole , (1727–1803), the distinguished translator of Tasso , and biographer of John Scott of Amwell .
• Rev Robert Scott Mylne FRSE FSSA FSA (1854-1920) antiquarian, vicar of Amwell (buried in the Mylne vault there)

Others buried in Amwell include:

• William Warner , (1558?-1609), the poet and historian;
• Alexander Small (1710-1794) Scottish surgeon and frequent correspondent of Benjamin Franklin ;
• Harold Abrahams in 1978, the Olympian who was depicted in Chariots of Fire .

Richard Warren (d. 1628), a passenger on the Mayflower in 1620, who settled in Plymouth Colony and co-signed the Mayflower Compact, was married on 14 April 1610 at Great Amwell to Elizabeth Walker, daughter of Augustine Walker. Richard and Elizabeth are the ancestors of two U.S. Presidents, Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

• The Hundred Parishes

• Heath, Cyril The Book of Amwell Barracuda Books Limited, 1980 ISBN 0-86023-085-6
• Doree, Stephen and Perman, David Amwell and Stanstead's Past in Pictures Publisher: The Rockingham Press 1997, ISBN 1-873468-57-1

• Local Amwell amenities list Provided by Hertfordshire County Council - Accessed February 2007
• Amwell (A Guide to Old Hertfordshire)
• A Brief History of Hertford Heath based on a note written by Esme Nix of Rush Green and describing Little Amwell