Ayot St Lawrence

Ayot St Lawrence is a small village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, between Harpenden and Welwyn. There are several other Ayots in the area, including Ayot Green and Ayot St Peter (where in 2011 the census population was included).

Heritage
George Bernard Shaw lived in the village, at Shaw's Corner, from 1906 until his death in 1950; his ashes are scattered there. The house is open to the public as a National Trust property.

During the 1950s Zoe Dyke moved to Ayot House where she continues the manufacture of British farmed silk works.

Other residents of the village included the Shaws' friend, neighbour and bibliographer Stephen Winsten and his wife, the artist Clare Winsten, and the novelist and biographer Carola Oman, Lady Lenanton.

Amenities
The village has one pub/inn, The Brocket Arms,, which is reputed to be haunted. The pub was established in the 14th century. .



The village has two churches:
 * Old St Lawrence Church, in the centre of the village, was partially demolished in 1775, because it was obstructing the view from Sir Lionel Lyde's new home.

Field Marshal Frederick Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan, a British Army officer and Chief of the Imperial General Staff, is buried in the churchyard.


 * New St Lawrence Church was designed in a neo-classical style by Nicholas Revett and features a Palladian-style frontage with Doric columns.