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General
Baldock was founded in the twelfth century by the Knights Templars who named it Baldac, after the Old French for Baghdad, though there was a town there during Roman times. Most of the current town was built in the sixteenth century with the Great North Road forming part of the High Street.
The town itself is situated in a fertile valley surrounded by chalk hills. A little way to the south of the town are the remains of both a Roman and a Danish settlement
The church of St. Mary dates from the fourteenth century and has an impressive tower and spike.
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St. Mary the Virgin
John Smith was a Rector of the church of St. Mary in Baldock over one hundred and thirty years ago but his ghost still haunts the church. John became famous when he translated the coded shorthand used by Samuel Pepys in his diaries. For nearly one hundred years the diaries had remained in Pepys’ library untranslated until John Smith, at the time a student at St. John’s College in Cambridge, succeeded in finding the key.
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