Anstey, a parish in Herts, on Ermine Street, near the river Quin, 4 1/2 miles NE of Buntingford station on the G.E.R., and 7 SSE of Royston. Post town, Buntingford, which is the money order office; telegraph office, Barkway. Acreage, 2150; population, 396. A castle stood here upon a high round hill, said to have been erected soon after the Conquest by Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, but was demolished in the time of Henry III. "because it had been a nest of rebels." The moat which surrounded it still remains. The living is a rectory in the diocese of St Albans; value, £300 with residence. Patron, Christ College, Cambridge. The church was built out of the materials of the castle, and is cruciform and of mixed architecture, from Norman to Perpendicular. There is also a small Primitive Methodist chapel. Anstey Hall is a chief residence.
