Barley is an attractive village in North Hertfordshire close to the boundary with Cambridgeshire. There are a number of facilities in the village including a coffee shop, village stores, petrol station / garage, surgery and school. Recent archaeological exploration of the district has demonstrated that this area, adjacent to the Icknield Way, was a centre of population in pre-historic times and during the period of the Roman occupation of Britain. The church nearby is St Margaret of Antioch which underwent major repair work in around 1870.
The village has given the world two Arch Bishops of Canterbury and the first mayor of New York was born there. The millennium stone outside the Town House (village hall) nearby provides details.