Real ale enthusiasts mustn't miss the Orange Tree, a former north Hertfordshire CAMRA pub of the year. This 330-year-old inn offers eight real ales from Monday to Wednesday and 13 the rest of the time, plus home-cooked food every lunchtime and evening and a beer garden.
Book one of our Baldock hotels and discover the town's historic centre, lined with Georgian mansions which belonged to prosperous 19th-century brewers and malters. The Grade I listed St Mary's Church dates from 1150, although it was largely rebuilt in the 14th century.
Festivals
Baldock hosts several festivals each year – the Baldock Festival, the Charter Fair and the Balstock music festival.
The Baldock Festival, held in May, features events ranging from art exhibitions and a beer festival to a classic car show and open gardens. It ends with a street fair involving dozens of stalls in the High Street, with many stallholders dressed in period clothing. An amusement fair sets up in town for the Charter Fair, which has been going since 1199, while Balstock is Hertfordshire's biggest free music festival and features dozens of bands. All the proceeds go to charity.
Golf
There are two golf courses near Baldock. Letchworth Golf Club offers an attractive 18-hole parkland course, filled with colourful fruit trees, copper beech and weeping willows. Look out for muntjac deer, green woodpeckers, kestrels and the stunning black squirrel. Visitors are welcome any time except Tuesday mornings. Chelsfield Downs Golf and Country Club has a par 3 course in addition to its main 18-hole course, which was designed by award-winning golf course architect, Jonathan Gaunt. There's also a health club here with a gym, an exercise studio where you can take yoga, zumba and spinning classes, a spa pool, a steam room and a sauna.
Baldock Museum
Baldock Museum, in the town hall, charts the town's history from Roman times to the present day. It is staffed by volunteers, who raise all the money to keep it going themselves, and is open on Wednesdays from 11:00 to 13:00 and Sundays from 14:00 to 16:00. It is closed from the middle of December until the first Sunday in March.
Shuttleworth Collection
A short drive away, the Shuttleworth Collection is an aircraft and vehicle museum with around 90 planes, cars and motorbikes from the first half of the 20th century. Exhibits include a Blériot XI from 1909, the world's oldest airworthy aircraft, and the DH88 Comet racing aircraft. You can watch the engineers restoring and maintaining the planes in the workshop, and on event days, you can see them taking off, flying and landing. There's also a beautiful Swiss garden to explore, with peacocks, a grotto, a chapel with pretty stained glass, a lake, a rock garden and more. The garden was originally created in Georgian times and 13 of its structures are listed as being of national historic importance – six are Grade II listed.
