People have lived, farmed and traded in the Hertfordshire town of Tring for thousands of years. The Icknield Way, which hugs the Chiltern scarp, is reckoned to be the oldest road in Europe, while the Bulbourne Valley provided an obvious route for the Romans heading out west from St Albans. It was inevitable that a settlement would develop here on the well-drained soil, with springs and good sites for wind and water mills. In 1799, the Grand Junction...