The village of Abbots Langley was thrust into the limelight yesterday evening, to coincide with Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United Kingdom.

Once home to Nicholas Breakspear, BBC’S The One Show featured a short piece on the life of the man who was to become England’s first Pope, Pope Adrian IV.

A number of roads in the village, Pope’s Road, Breakspear Road, and Adrian Close – have been named after the religious figure, as has Breakspeare School, in Gallows Hill Lane.

Believed to have been born circa 1100 at Breakspear Farm, Abbots Langley, Pope Adrian IV began his education at Abbey School, St Albans.

His father, Robert Breakspear, was a monk at St Albans, and had high expectations that his son would follow in his footsteps.

However Nicholas Breakspear failed an entrance exam and was refused entry into the monastery.

Reverend Dr Anders Bergquist, who was interviewed outside Protestant place of worship, St Lawrence Church, told The One Show: “Robert abandoned his son when he became a monk at St Albans.

“The young lad would beg and do odd jobs around the monastery. Robert found this so embarrassing that he got the Abbot of St Albans to do an exclusion order to keep Nicholas away from the monastery.”

Although Nicholas Breakspear was refused entry to the monastery, from there he went to France to become an Abbot, and then on to Rome.

Francis Campbell, British ambassador to the Vatican, told the show how forward-thinking the only English Pope was.

“He was perhaps a little ahead of his time in terms of challenging some of the systems in place.

“The Pope clearly sees something he likes, brings him to Rome makes him a Bishop then Cardinal.

“[When he became Pope in 1154] He doesn’t have a powerful background, and that’s why at the conclave that elected him, that it was great surprise this figure came from nowhere.”

During his short papacy, which ended with his death in Rome in 1159, it is believed he gave Ireland to Henry II of England – some dispute whether this actually took place, and it has been the subject of controversy, leading to bitter territorial conflict.

Pope Adrian IV never returned to Britain, but did not forget St Albans Abbey, paying for the shrine to St Alban and making the Abbot one of the richest and most prestigious in the land.