Brickendonbury

Brickendonbury is an estate in the Metropolitan Green Belt, roughly halfway between the town centres of Hertford and Brickendon, consisting of several Victorian era farmhouses, a Georgian era mansion, several blockhouses, and modern facilities. Several of the buildings on the estate are listed in the National Heritage List for England, including the main Brickendonbury Manor, Clock Cottage, East Cottage, and Stable Cottage. The farm area of this estate has been continuously inhabited since at least the Saxon era, and several Roman coins have also been found here, indicating a much earlier presence. It was briefly home to the Stratton Park School. During World War II, the estate was occupied by Section D of the Secret Intelligence Service to become "D School," the first British school ever established for modern guerrilla warfare, which was later operated by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). In the early 1970s, the estate was used to film Catweazle, a television show about a time traveling wizard.

In 1974, Brickendonbury was purchased by the Malaysian Rubber Producers' Research Association, which changed its name in 1994 to the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre (TARRC), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Malaysian Rubber Board. In the early 2000s, the National Sports Council of Malaysia was involved in a real estate scandal here that was eventually called the Brickendonbury Scandal. Each Summer, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the British Malaysian Society host the Malaysian Merdeka Day Carnival, a public celebration of Malaysia’s independence that attracts thousands of attendees to the historic grounds.