Symonds Green

[4][5] The Crooked Billet Public House was, evidenced by mapping of the day,[6] on Symonds Green in the early 20th century.

The farmhouse still stands and the related Grade II listed barn is believed to be the Conservation Area's oldest surviving building and is described within the English Heritage listings search thus:- 'The barn is a near-complete example of late C16 or early C17 timber-framing, displaying carpentry detailing characteristic of Hertfordshire practice, and retaining evidence of later extension and adaptation for animal husbandry'.

The Grade II listed farmhouse that served Broomin Green still stands and is to be found nestling within the 20th century development of Stevenage Town north east of the junction of the A1155 Fairlands Way and A1072 Gunnels Wood Road.

There is no trace remaining of the footbridge, which would have emerged opposite the present filling station on the corner of Woolners Way and Trinity Road.

At the southern end of Symonds Green Lane, toward the Meadway playing fields, are a small number of 1930s houses[16] originally built for the workers at Stevenage Nurseries, which existed nearby on the land now occupied by a 1970s housing estate, the service roadway of which provides the only vehicular access to the Conservation Area which is otherwise a Cul-de-sac.

Symonds Green Lane narrows to a surfaced footpath at its boundary at both the south & north edges of the Conservation Area and in turn, links into the system of Stevenage cycle paths[17] and other designated foot ways.

Until the late summer of 2014, at the southern end of the green, an information notice erected by the local authority[18] provided a brief and interesting account of the history of the area.

The original board read:- Symonds Green...covers an area of roughly five acres, although in the past it seems to have been larger than this.

Symonds Green was the birthplace of the notorious poachers, the Fox twins, who were born in 1857 in a thatched cottage behind the Crooked Billet.

[19] Symonds Green covers much of the area of the ancient hamlet of Woolenwick, after which the local primary school is named.