Hoddesdon

Hoddesdon's big moment in history was a 1683 plot to kill Charles II on the road past Rye House, which failed because the king left early, and the town has been perfecting that move ever since by emptying out every weekday morning. In 1951 the world's leading architects met here to work out how to rebuild bombed city centres, and within twenty years Hoddesdon had knocked down much of its own without any help from the Luftwaffe. Then the bypass took the through traffic too, so the Elizabethan inns along the High Street are still waiting for travellers who now go round the town instead.