The first mention of a place of Christian worship in Hempstead is a charter of 1094, in which William Rufus (son of the Conqueror) gives the church of Sampford Magna (Great Sampford) and its chapel at Hempstead to Battle Abbey, near the site of the 1066 Battle of Hastings.
The significance of the label ‘chapel’, or ‘chapel of ease’, is that it was a convenient place where the people of Hempstead could go to worship. It was not, however, entitled to its own priest or graveyard. Revenues from these sacraments were often jealously guarded by the principal church.
In 1365, Simon of Sudbury, the Bishop of London, consecrated the aisles and nave of St Andrew’s and also consecrated the churchyard. In all probability, this was a response to the Black Death less than twenty years previously, which killed between a third and a half of the population of England. The lack of a consecrated graveyard at this time would have been a cause for serious concern. Strangely, and probably due to simple administrative error, the legal status of St Andrew’s was not changed at this time and it did not officially become a parish church until 1974.
During the long wait between 1094 and 1365, all marriages and burials had to take place in the main church at Sampford. In particular, the bodies of those who had died in the village had to be wheeled or carried along the ‘corpse road’, which follows the straightest route between the two churches, as shown on the map below.
These paths are common throughout England and are also known as ‘coffin paths’, bier roads’ or ‘lyke ways’. One of the most famous is the long one between Rydal and Grasmere in the Lake District. Some had designated ‘coffin rests’ along the route although it is unlikely that this was actually their function: the body would generally be carried either in a cart or on horseback and be put into the coffin only at the lych gate of the church. More probably, they were places to stop for prayer along the way.
Starting from the centre of the village, the Hempstead corpse road would have taken the funeral party up Church Hill, striking to the right at Pollards Cross and following the path up to the tributary of the River Pant. They would cross the stream and proceed via Free Roberts, past the site of the old sand pits and down to the bottom of Howe Lane, just before it joins the main road.
The bodies of those who died further up the lane, towards or beyond Campions End, would instead be carried along Howe Lane to the corner of Dark Lane (next to the house currently called Rose Lea, formerly Sharp’s Croft). Turning right down Dark Lane, they would join the main corpse road at Free Roberts.
It’s not clear whether the name of Dark Lane is related to its function as an auxiliary corpse road. There is an apparent precedent for this – the village of Teffont, Worcesterhire has a similar path known as Dark Lane which joins up with the main corpse road leading to the church at Dinton. On the other hand, there are many more corpse roads throughout England which are not called ‘Dark Lane’, including the route from Pollards Cross. On the large scale 1876 Ordnance Survey map, the name of Dark Lane is clearly shown, whereas the other part of the route is unnamed. On balance, it seems more likely that the name comes simply from the fact that it was a shady ‘holloway’, worn from long use.