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Stevenage Leasing

Did You Know?

While Stevenage New Town is heralded as the great achievement, it's not like people didn't live here before. The first settlers in the area have been dated back to the Neolithic period -around 5,000 BC, there was even a Stonehenge-like monument in Weston Park, near Hitchin

The name of the town is likely to come from Old English, meaning 'place at the stiff oak', with the first Saxon village in the area being called Stith ac.

While many think (wrongly) Stevenage is just a commuter town now, it's nothing new for the area - in the Tudor period the town's economy lived off being a significant stop on the Great North Road, which connected the rest of the country to London.

Stevenage is home to a significant amount of aerospace innovations and development from an Airbus facility. This includes the 14-year building process for the ExoMars Rover, which passed testing early this year and should be on the red planet in 2021.

The town has also been shown on screen in a handful of films, perhaps most surprisingly standing in for Washington DC in the Robert Redford and Brad Pitt movie Spy Game, which was shot at the futuristic-looking GlaxoSmithKlein building.

Stevenage was the first town in the UK with dedicated cycleways. It is only 19 minutes from London by train to Kings Cross non-stop. Home to The Thomas Alleyne Academy which can trace its roots back to 1558. The MARS rover was built at Airbus in Stevenage.

The history of Stevenage began on a small community on a wooded hill in North Hertfordshire during Saxon times. The area was known as 'Stigenace' meaning 'at the Strong Oak', with groups forming in what are now Chells, Woolenwick, Broadwater and Shephall?.

Stevenage historic ballroom, now home to Mecca Bingo, was a major attraction in the 1960s and 1970s. It has hosted notable performers such as The Beatles, The Who, Stevie Wonder, The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones.