- published: 08 Jun 2009
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- author: oldhempsteadian
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A41 road
The A41 is a major trunk road in England that links London and Birkenhead, although it has now in parts been superseded by motorways. It passes through or near various towns and cities including Watford, Kings Langley, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Newport, Whitchurch, Chester and Ellesmere Port.
It follows part of the line of the old Roman road, Akeman Street and the eighteenth century Sparrows Herne turnpike.
With the opening of the M40 extension in 1990 linking with the M42 near Birmingham, much of the route was downgraded in importance - with the sections between Bicester and the M42 near Solihull being renumbered as the A4141, A4177 and B4100.
The route begins near Marble Arch in London, at the junction with Oxford Street (A40). Here, north-bound traffic uses Gloucester Place, the south-bound uses Baker Street. It becomes a dual-carriageway on Finchley Road, through Swiss Cottage, and along Hendon Way, and intersects with the North Circular Road near Brent Cross shopping centre. The road passes through Hendon and after the junction with the A5150, (close to the Metropolitan Police's police college and the RAF Museum), it runs directly next to the M1. The A41 overlaps the A1 at Five Ways Corner with the section known as Watford Way. It passes through Mill Hill, separating with the A1 at Apex Corner roundabout After crossing the M1, near Elstree, it links the M1 at Junction 4, and then meets the A5 at a roundabout (where the A5 becomes the A5183). The A41 continues next to the M1 into Hertfordshire. This section is known as Elton Way, as far as the roundabout with the B462. The next section is dual-carriageway.
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Abbots Langley
Coordinates: 51°42′04″N 0°24′58″W / 51.701°N 0.416°W / 51.701; -0.416
Abbots Langley is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. It is an old settlement and is mentioned (under the name of Langelai) in the Domesday Book. Economically the village is closely linked to Watford and was formerly part of the Watford Rural District. Since 1974 it has been included in the Three Rivers district.
This village has had a long history of successful human habitation. The first traces of human habitation in the area were recorded by renowned archaeologist Sir John Evans (1823 – 1908). The village sits on a saucer of clay covered by a layer of gravel, and as a result water supply has never been a problem; records show that in earlier times water could be drawn from a well just 20 ft deep[citation needed]
In 1045 the Saxon thegn Ethelwine 'the black' granted the upper part of Langlai to St Albans Abbey as Langlai Abbatis (Latin for Langlai of the Abbot, hence 'Abbot's Langley')[citation needed] the remainder being the king's Langlai. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 the village was inhabited by 19 families.
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Adeyfield
Coordinates: 51°45′21″N 0°27′06″W / 51.755831°N 0.451625°W / 51.755831; -0.451625
Adeyfield was the first planned neighbourhood to be built in the postwar new town expansion of Hemel Hempstead, in the English county of Hertfordshire. The keys to the first houses to be occupied, in Homefield Road, were handed over to their tenants in February 1950. The Queens Square shopping parade was visited by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 July 1952.
Adeyfield is dominated by brick built two and three bedroom housing designed for the New Town. It spans from the Hemel Hempstead Industrial Estate in the east, to Queensway in the north, to the A414 (St Albans Road) in the south, to the Town Centre in the west. It borders the neighbourhoods of Highfield, Bennetts End, Leverstock Green and the town centre (known locally as Paradise).
The location was originally farmland occupied by Coxpond Farm and Adeyfield Farm. It was planned by the chief architect for the new town, Mr H Kellet Ablett who received the 'Urban Medal' for his work from the Eastern Housing Region. As well as housing the area has new town built shops, schools, churches, a community centre and playing fields. By 1956 the development corporation described the area as complete.
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Baldock
Coordinates: 51°59′23″N 0°11′20″W / 51.9896°N 0.1888°W / 51.9896; -0.1888
Baldock is a historic market town in the local government district of North Hertfordshire in the ceremonial county of Hertfordshire, England where the River Ivel rises. It lies 33 miles (53 km) north of London, 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Bedford, and 14 miles (23 km) north northwest of the county town of Hertford. Nearby towns include Letchworth and Hitchin to the southwest and Stevenage to the south.
Baldock was founded by the Knights Templar (also the name of the town's secondary school) in the 1140s[citation needed]. Perhaps for this reason, one theory of the origin of the name Baldock is as a derivation from the Old French name for Baghdad: Baldac which the Templars had hoped to conquer during the Crusades. A rival etymology, suggesting a derivation from "Bald Oak", perhaps meaning a dead oak, is superficially plausible, but the early forms of the name are against it[citation needed]. Although the Templars' connections to Baghdad were "tenuous", it was widely regarded as the most prosperous market in the world and the Templars perhaps hoped that the name would confer a similar prosperity on their own market town in England[citation needed]. The modern layout of the town, and many buildings in the centre, date from the sixteenth century[citation needed], with the earliest dating from the fourteenth century[citation needed].
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Bennetts End
Coordinates: 51°44′32″N 0°26′57″W / 51.742193°N 0.449064°W / 51.742193; -0.449064
Bennetts End is a neighbourhood within Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, England. It is located in the southeast of the town and consists almost entirely of public housing built as part of the new town in the 1950s. It was the second neighbourhood to have construction commenced by the New Town corporation, after the nearby Adeyfield.
The area was mostly farmland up until the construction of the new town. The name first appears as a farmstead owned by "Roger de Beneyet" around 1269. Old maps show Bennetts End Farm and Bennets End House as the only nineteenth century buildings. A local industry, dating back to medieval times, was tile and brick making which used the local brickearth clay. This is particularly suitable for making bricks at the low temperatures achievable in wood fired kilns. Local street names " Tile Kiln Lane " and "Kiln Ground" remember this activity. The area has many dells, hollows in the ground dug out by the brickmakers or by farmers seeking the deeper chalk to spread on their land and make them more fertile.
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Berkhamsted
Coordinates: 51°46′N 0°34′W / 51.76°N 0.56°W / 51.76; -0.56
Berkhamsted (
/ˈbɜrkəmstɛd/) is a historic town in England which is situated in the west of Hertfordshire, between the towns of Tring and Hemel Hempstead. It is also a civil parish with a designated Town Council within the administrative district (and borough since 1984) of Dacorum.
The town's most prominent role in national affairs took place in early December 1066. Duke William of Normandy, having defeated the English army at Hastings, then crossing the River Thames at Wallingford. In Berkhamsted he was met by a delegation of the English establishment. He accepted the surrender of the English led by Aetheling Edgar (the heir to the King Harold II's English claim to the Throne of England), Archbishop Aldred, Earl Edwin, Earl Morcar and the chief men of London who swore loyalty to William in return for good government. He was offered the crown there but instead said he would accept the keys to London in Berkhamsted but would accept the crown of England in London. Thus, in Berkhamsted, William of Normandy, William the Bastard, became William the Conqueror. On Christmas Day 1066 William was crowned William I of England in Westminster Abbey. A traditonal local legend refers to Berkhamsted as the real capital of England (if only for a few minutes).
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Bishop's Stortford
Coordinates: 51°52′19″N 0°10′21″E / 51.8720°N 0.1725°E / 51.8720; 0.1725
Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire in the county of Hertfordshire in England. It is situated just west of the M11 motorway, on the county boundary with Essex and is the closest large town to London Stansted Airport and part of the London commuter belt. Bishop's Stortford is 29 miles (47 km) north east of Charing Cross in the centre of London and 35 miles (56 km) from Liverpool Street station where the railway line from Cambridge to London, which runs through the town, terminates. In the 2006 edition of the Channel 4 "Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK", East Hertfordshire was the seventh best district to live in. The town has a population of 34,826.
Nothing of historical significance is known of the Bishop's Stortford area until it became a small Roman settlement on the Roman road of Stane Street between Braughing and Colchester. After the Roman Empire broke down, the small town was abandoned in the 5th century.[citation needed]
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Blue Peter
Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time. The show uses a studio for the main format of the presenting; there is also a garden, often referred to as 'The Blue Peter Garden', that is used during the summer months or used when they are showing any outside activities. The current presenters are Helen Skelton and Barney Harwood.
On 29 March 2011, Blue Peter became the first programme in the UK to broadcast an entire show in 360 degrees on the web. Viewers were able to watch the programme via their TVs and simultaneously interact with the television studio in front and behind the cameras on the website. Viewers were also challenged to play a game where they had to find particular crew members and staff dressed up in distinctive costumes. On 16 May 2012, the BBC announced that they would no longer broadcast children's TV on BBC one and the show would only be seen on CBBC.
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Borehamwood
Coordinates: 51°39′28″N 0°16′20″W / 51.6578°N 0.2723°W / 51.6578; -0.2723
Boreham Wood, (The correct naming[citation needed]) (often spelt Borehamwood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, situated 16.5 miles (26.6 km) north of central London. It has a population of 28,546. It is within the civil parish of Elstree and Borehamhwood and the London commuter belt. There is one weekly newspaper, the Boreham Wood and Elstree Times. The town is perhaps most well known for its film and TV studios, commonly known as Elstree Film Studios, hence the associated with Elstree.
On of the earliest mentions of Bosci de Boreham (Wood of Boreham), is in 1188:
In 1776, the House of Lords granted:
Up until 1909, the town was part of the ancient parish of Elstree; the two still share a local council, Elstree and Boreham Wood Town Council.
From the 1920s onwards, the town became known as one of the main centres of the UK film, and later television, industries due to the presence of production studios.
Following World War II, the town's population greatly increased, with large areas of council housing set up for displaced Londoners, many of which are now in private ownership. Fast train connections to central London have resulted in the town becoming a primarily residential suburb.
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Bovingdon
Coordinates: 51°43′23″N 0°31′56″W / 51.723031°N 0.532317°W / 51.723031; -0.532317
Bovingdon is a large village in the Chiltern Hills, in Hertfordshire, England, four miles south-west of Hemel Hempstead and it is a civil parish within the local authority area of Dacorum. It forms the largest part of the ward of Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield, which had a population of 3,819 at the 2001 census.
The name is first mentioned in deeds from 1200 as Bovyndon. It could originate from Old English Bufan dune meaning "above the down" or from Bofa's down, the down belonging to Bofa.
There are two churches in the village. The Baptist Church and the Anglican Church. The Baptist church started as a Wesleyan Methodist Church and changed to Baptist. St Lawrence Church was built in 1845 by Talbot Bury. The churchyard is the second largest in Hertfordshire[citation needed] and includes an avenue of clipped yew trees. The village also includes some old cottages. There are two pubs in the village centre, The Bull and The Bell. A third, the Wheatsheaf, is now closed.
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Boxmoor
Coordinates: 51°44′47″N 0°29′10″W / 51.746282°N 0.486152°W / 51.746282; -0.486152
Boxmoor, or Boxmoor Village, is a district of Dacorum in Hertfordshire, England. It is now part of Hemel Hempstead. It is a district of mainly nineteenth century housing and meadowland, repeatedly cut through by transport links from London to the The Midlands.
The name Boxmoor derives from the box tree a bushy inhabitant of the chalky hills that surround the location. This is linked together with the word 'mor' which signifies a marshy spot; Boxmoor's ancient watermeadows are still a major feature of the locality.
The remains of a Roman villa have been found in the grounds of Boxmoor House School near the railway station dating from around the 1st or early 2nd century AD.
The Box Moor Trust owns meadow land in the area alongside the River Bulbourne. This was land purchased by tenants in secret during the sixteenth century to prevent it being enclosed and depriving them of grazing. It is still held by the same trust established at that time and is used for summer grazing and has open access for recreational use.
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Broxbourne
Coordinates: 51°44′58″N 0°01′18″W / 51.7495°N 0.0216°W / 51.7495; -0.0216
Broxbourne is a commuter town in the Broxbourne borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England with a population of 13,298 in 2001.
It is located 17.1 miles (27.5 km) north north-east of Charing Cross in London and about a mile (1.6 km) north of Wormley and south of Hoddesdon. The town is near to the River Lea which forms the boundary with Essex and is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north of the M25 motorway. West of the town are Broxbourne Woods, a National Nature Reserve.
The Prime Meridian passes to the east of Broxbourne.
Broxbourne grew up on the Great Cambridge Road, now known as the A10. A number of old houses and inns dating from the 16th to the 19th century still line the High Street (now the A1170). The Manor of Broxbourne is described in the Domesday Book, which mentions Broxbourne Mill. The manor was held in the time of Edward the Confessor by Stigand, the Archbishop of Canterbury, but had passed into Norman hands following the Conquest. King John granted the manor to the Knights Hospitallers until the Dissolution, when it passed to John Cock, after whose family Cock Lane is named.
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Broxbourne (borough)
The Borough of Broxbourne is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Cheshunt, other towns include Broxbourne, Hoddesdon and Waltham Cross. The eastern boundary of the district is the River Lea. The borough covers 20 square miles (52 km2) in south east Hertfordshire having a population of about 96,000.
The borough was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of Cheshunt and Hoddesdon urban districts.
In Broxbourne borough, the Metropolitan Green Belt protects the surrounding countryside. The west of Broxbourne borough extends over well-wooded countryside to include Goffs Oak and the popular Lee Valley Park which marks the eastern boundary. Although urbanised with industrial and commercial activity, the whole area retains much of its rural character and is liked by people commuting to London. Most of Broxbourne is classified as part of the Greater London Urban Area, although it is not a London borough.
The borough is twinned with the Sicilian city of Sutera.
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Buntingford
Coordinates: 51°56′40″N 0°00′58″W / 51.9445°N 0.0160°W / 51.9445; -0.0160
Buntingford is a small market town and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire and county of Hertfordshire in England. It lies on the River Rib and on the Roman road Ermine Street. As a result of its location, it grew mainly as a staging post with many coaching inns and has an 18th century one cell prison known as 'The Cage' by the ford at the end of Church Street. It has a population of 4,820.The town also has a annual firework display at The Bury, the Buntingford Cougars HQ and also a sainsburys depot. It is Hertfordshire's smallest town.
The Prime Meridian passes to the east of Buntingford.
The Mayor of Buntingford is Stan Bull.
The town has a large number of Georgian and mediaeval buildings, such as Buntingford almshouses, Buntingford Manor House and the Red House. Buntingford was a stop-over on what was the main route between London and Cambridge, now the A10. Due to its desirability as a commuter town in recent years, the town has grown considerably in the past few decades, the most noticeable recent addition being the 'Bovis Estate' (circa 1990), informally named after the housing firm that constructed there; its main road is Luynes Rise, named due to the town's twinning with Luynes (near Tours) in France. Other housing estates are: Freman Drive, Vicarage Road, Snells Mead, Downhall Ley, Monks Walk, and Kingfisher Park, currently under construction (2010).
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Chaulden
Chaulden is a residential district in Hemel Hempstead , Hertfordshire, England located west of the town centre and bordering on open countryside. It was an early development in the construction of Hemel Hempstead new town , commenced in 1953 and has its own neighbourhood shopping centre.
The name Chaulden can be traced back to 1523 as a local field name and means a chalky valley. A country house and estate called Chaulden House occupied the area during the nineteenth century.
The ancient Chaulden Lane is thought to preserve the route of Akeman Street, the Roman Road along the Bulbourne valley
A large part of the site was previously occupied by Pixies Hill a children's camp run by the National Camps Corporation. The old camp buildings were converted into the districts first school before permanent schools could be constructed.
Building work on the new town district commenced in 1953 with the first houses occupied in December of that year.
The Chaulden Neighbourhood centre , a parade of shops set in a crescent around a car park , was completed in 1958. The nearby pub the Tudor Rose also built by the New Town corporation, celebrates Hemel Hempsteads link to the Tudor King Henry VIII who gave the town its charter.
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Cheshunt
Coordinates: 51°42′07″N 0°02′06″W / 51.702°N 0.035°W / 51.702; -0.035
Cheshunt ( /ˈtʃɛzənt/) is a town in Hertfordshire, England with a population of around 52,000 according to the United Kingdom's 2001 Census. It is a dormitory town and part of the Greater London Urban Area and London commuter belt served by Cheshunt railway station. The town is located 13 miles (21 km) from Charing Cross, making it one of the closest parts of Hertfordshire to Central London.
The Prime Meridian passes to the east of Cheshunt.
The town name comes from the Old English name (as recorded in the Domesday Book) for the area, Cestrehunt, which probably refers to a "castle, erected by the Romans", the word cestre (along with the form ceastre), or even its modern forms, chester and caster being derived from the Latin castrum meaning "fort". The town Chester also derives from this root and it is an element in various English place-names. This is commemorated in the arms of the former Cheshunt urban district council.
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Chiltern Hills
The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.
The Chilterns cover an area of 833 km2 (322 sq mi) and are 18 km (11 mi) at their widest and stretch 74 km (46 mi) in a southwest to northeast diagonal from Goring-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, through Buckinghamshire, via Dunstable Downs and Deacon Hill in Bedfordshire, to near Hitchin in Hertfordshire.
The boundary of the hills is clearly defined on the northwest side by the scarp slope. The dip slope, by its nature, merges with the landscape to the southeast. Similarly, the Thames provides a clear terminal to the southwest, whereas northeast of Luton the hills decline slowly in prominence.
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City of St Albans
The City of St Albans /sɨnt ˈɔːlbənz/, also known as the City and District of St Albans or District of St Albans, is a local government district, in Hertfordshire, England. It was created in 1974 and since then has held the status of non-metropolitan district and city. The local authority is St Albans City Council. It has routes to the M1 motorway via the A414 road (formerly the M10 motorway), and rail routes to London St Pancras and Watford via St Albans City railway station and St Albans Abbey railway station respectively.
The district includes St Albans (population c. 58,000), Harpenden (population c. 27,600), the parishes of Colney Heath, Harpenden Rural, London Colney, Redbourn, St Michael's, St Stephen's (including the villages of Chiswell Green and Bricket Wood), Sandridge and Wheathampstead. Nearby places outside the district include Hatfield to the east, Welwyn Garden City to the northeast, Luton and Dunstable to the northwest, Hemel Hempstead to the west, Watford to the southwest and Borehamwood to the south.
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Dacorum
The Borough of Dacorum is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England that includes the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and the western part of Kings Langley. The district, which was formed in 1974, had a population of 137,799 in 2001. Its name was taken from the old hundred of Dacorum which covered approximately the same area.
The hundred of Dacorum was first recorded in 1196 although its existence dates from the 9th and 10th century when it lay on the margins of the southern boundary of Danelaw and the River Lea. Its name in Latin means "of the Danes" . In the 11th century, the Domesday Book records that the hundreds of Tring and Danais overlapped areas of the hundred of Dacorum.
In 1974, the modern district of Dacorum was formed under the Local Government Act 1972. Major components were the municipal borough of Hemel Hempstead, the urban districts of Berkhamsted and Tring, the rural districts of Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead and those parts of the rural districts of St Albans and Watford which were within the designated area of Hemel Hempstead new town.
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East Hertfordshire
East Hertfordshire is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England. Its council has offices in Bishop's Stortford and Hertford (Hertfordshire's traditional county town).
The other main towns in the district are Ware (on the River Lea), Buntingford (on the River Rib), and Sawbridgeworth (on the River Stort). Of these five major towns, all except Buntingford fall within the parliamentary constituency of Hertford and Stortford. Buntingford is part of the North East Hertfordshire constituency.
East Herts, as its council is officially known, is bordered by North Hertfordshire, Stevenage, Welwyn Hatfield, and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, and by Epping Forest, Harlow, and Uttlesford in Essex.
The district was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the municipal borough of Hertford with Bishop's Stortford, Sawbridgeworth and Ware urban districts, and Braughing Rural District, Ware Rural District and part of Hertford Rural District. By area it is the largest of the ten local government districts in Hertfordshire.
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England
England
i/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, while the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separate it from continental Europe. Most of England comprises the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic. The country also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law—the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world—developed in England, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's Royal Society laid the foundations of modern experimental science.
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Felden
Coordinates: 51°44′N 0°28′W / 51.73°N 0.46°W / 51.73; -00.46
Felden is a semi-rural neighbourhood of Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, situated to the south west of the town, close to the railway station.
It is separated from the main urban area by main roads, the rail line and Boxmoor. To be precise, the boundary of Felden extends only from the diverging of the road Felden lane, where the sign to the boys brigade is now situated. The 'Felden' sign was removed recently making it unclear that the Felden Hamlet does not extend below this point. Similarly Felden the Hamlet does not actually extend as far as the road Box lane, which is also often claimed to be part of this band of housing. Felden is uncharacteristic of Hemel Hempstead in that it almost entirely upmarket privately owned housing.
The ancient Box Lane runs uphill from Boxmoor to Bovingdon and passes through the west of Felden. On this lane stands Box Lane Chapel, a non-conformist chapel dating from the early 17th century. The chapel was officially founded in 1668, was re-built in 1690 and then altered in 1856 and again in 1876. Tradition has it that Oliver Cromwell once worshipped here. It is now a private house after being sold in 1969.
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Fields End
Coordinates: 51°46′N 0°30′W / 51.76°N 0.50°W / 51.76; -0.50
Fields End is a hamlet to the North West of Hemel Hempstead, just beyond Warner's End on Boxted Road, in Hertfordshire, England.
The village is formally recognised as village within Hertfordshire by Hertfordshire County Council.
Fields End consisted largely of agricultural fields until planning permission was granted for a new residential estate to begin construction on green belt land between Warner's End and Potten End in the 1980s. The estate was completed in the late 1990s, with Dacorum council having made several attempts to continue to develop the remaining agricultural land of Fields End Farm in the intervening years.
Attempts to develop the fields around Fields End continue to be investigated by Dacorum council, with formal objections being registered at recently as December 2008.
Local schools are Potten End School, Micklem Primary and formerly Martindale Primary schools (closed 2008), and the John F Kennedy Catholic School. The site of Fields End Primary School, once on the corner of Fields End Lane and Boxted Road now sits under the Fields End estate housing development which was constructed in the early 1990's.
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Germany
Germany (i/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] (
listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.
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Grand Junction Canal
The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, by-passing the upper reaches of the River Thames near Oxford and by shortening the journey. The canal was bought by the Regent's Canal and from 1 January 1929 now forms the southern half of the Grand Union Main Line from London to Birmingham. The canal is now much used by leisure traffic.
By 1790, an extensive network of canals was in place in the Midlands, or under construction. However, the only route to London was via the Oxford Canal to the River Thames at Oxford, and then down the river to the capital. The river, particularly the upper reaches, was in a poor condition for navigation compared with the modern canals. The river suffered from shallow sections and shortage of water leading to delays at locks, with conflicts with mill owners over water supplies common.
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Grand Union Canal
The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. Its main line starts in London and ends in Birmingham, stretching for 137 miles (220 km) with 166 locks. It has arms to places including Leicester, Slough, Aylesbury, Wendover and Northampton.
The Grand Union Canal was also the original name for part of what is now part of the Leicester Line of the modern Grand Union: this latter is now generally referred to as the Old Grand Union Canal in order to avoid ambiguity.
With competition from the railways having taken a large share of traffic in the second half of the 19th century, improvements in roads and vehicle technology in the early part of the 20th century meant that the lorry was also becoming a threat to the canals. Tolls had been reduced to compete with the railways, but there was little scope for further reduction. The Regent's Canal and the Grand Junction Canal agreed that amalgamation and modernisation were the only way to remain competitive.
The (present) Grand Union Canal came into being on 1 January 1929, extended in 1932. It was formed from the amalgamation of several different canals:
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Greater London
Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London and the 32 London boroughs. This territory has the same boundaries as the London Government Office Region and the London European Parliament constituency. The region has by far the highest GVA per capita in the United Kingdom. It covers 1,572 km2 (607 sq mi) and had a 2009 mid-year estimated population of 7,753,600. The term Greater London was in use before 1965 to refer to a variously defined area, larger than the County of London and often similar to the Metropolitan Police District.
In addition to its administrative and statistical functions, Greater London (excluding the City of London) is one of the 48 ceremonial counties of England, and is under the Greater London Lieutenancy.
Instead of forming a single political unit, London is divided into the small, interior City of London and the much wider Greater London. This arrangement has come about because as the area of London grew and absorbed neighbouring settlements, a series of administrative reforms did not fully amalgamate the City of London with the metropolitan area, and its unique political structure was retained. Outside the limited boundaries of the old city, a variety of arrangements governed the wider area since 1855, culminating with the creation of the Greater London administrative area in 1965.
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Grovehill
Coordinates: 51°45′09″N 0°28′09″W / 51.7526°N 0.4692°W / 51.7526; -0.4692
Grovehill is an area of Hemel Hempstead, it comprises two distinct developments. 'Precinct A' laid out and developed by the New Town Commission in 1967/8 and from the beginning a mixture of private and rented housing specifically intended to accommodate families of migrating management and professionals that a developing New Town required. This first development is situated at the Redbourn Road end of St. Agnells Lane, and takes in the self-build scheme already in progress at Wooton Drive in 1967/8, Crawley Drive to the Hammond Nursery, Infant and Junior School facing West on to Cambrian Way, and extending along the East side of Aycliffe Drive, and taking in the South side of Washington Avenue.
The second development, the large social housing estate at Grovehill West, began in 1972 and starts from the North side of Washington Avenue taking in: that part of St Agnells Lane north of Washington Avenue as far as Cupid Green Lane and continuing on to regain the upper end of the North side of Washington Avenue that meets Aycliffe Drive; the major sprawl of the development is West of Aycliffe Drive taking in Piccotts End Lane and beyond.
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Harpenden
Coordinates: 51°49′03″N 0°21′09″W / 51.8175°N 0.3524°W / 51.8175; -0.3524
Harpenden is a town in Hertfordshire, England.
The town's total population is just under 30,000.
There are two civil parishes: Harpenden and Harpenden Rural.
Harpenden railway station is on a frequent and fast rail link to central London now served by First Capital Connect, having been served previously by Thameslink. Some trains stop at 'all stations' on the route, others stop at St Albans before continuing non-stop to London St Pancras International (Harpenden to St Pancras International - 25 minutes). Trains run north to Luton and on to Bedford. From London, the trains continue south to Brighton via Gatwick, Sevenoaks or Wimbledon and Sutton. The rail link therefore gives direct access to London Luton Airport (one stop north) and London Gatwick Airport (approx 1hr 10 m on a limited stops train).
In common with much of the region, Harpenden is an area of extremely high property costs. Land Registry data suggests that the average house price in Harpenden in the 1st quarter of 2006 was £500,902 (against £287,277 for St Albans District generally, and £183,598 nationally). The data also indicates that an unusually high proportion of houses in Harpenden are owner occupied (81.4%, as opposed to 69.6% in the District generally, and 66.2% nationally).
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Heathrow airport
London Heathrow Airport or Heathrow (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL) is a major airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. Located in the London Borough of Hillingdon, in West London, Heathrow is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom and the third busiest airport in the world (as of 2011) in terms of total passenger traffic, handling more international passengers than any other airport around the globe. It is also the busiest airport in the EU by passenger traffic and the third busiest in Europe given the number of traffic movements, with a figure surpassed only by Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport and Frankfurt Airport. Heathrow is London's main airport, having replaced RAF Northolt, and together with Gatwick, Southend, Stansted, Luton and London City, London is the busiest city airport system in the world by passenger traffic (with 133,666,888 passengers travelling through the five airports); and second only to New York City in terms of traffic movements. The airport sustains 76,600 jobs directly and around 116,000 indirectly in the immediate area, and this, together with the large number of global corporations with offices close to the airport, makes Heathrow a modern aerotropolis which contributes an estimated 2.7% to London's total GVA.
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Hemel Hempstead
Coordinates: 51°45′09″N 0°28′09″W / 51.7526°N 0.4692°W / 51.7526; -0.4692
Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, 24 miles (38.6 km) to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 (but now estimated at around 89,000 by Hertfordshire County Council).
Developed after World War II as a new town, it has existed as a settlement since the 8th century and was granted its town charter by King Henry VIII in 1539. It is part of the district (and borough since 1984) of Dacorum and the Hemel Hempstead constituency.
The settlement was called by the name Henamsted or Hean-Hempsted, i.e. High Hempstead, in Anglo-Saxon times and in William the Conqueror's time by the name of Hemel-Amstede. The name is referred to in the Domesday Book as "Hamelamesede", but in later centuries it became Hamelhamsted. In Old English, "-stead" or "-stede" simply meant a place, such as the site of a building or pasture, as in clearing in the woods, and this suffix is used in the names of other English places such as Hamstead and Berkhamsted.
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Hertford
Coordinates: 51°47′42″N 0°04′41″W / 51.795°N 0.078°W / 51.795; -0.078
Hertford ( /ˈhɑrtfərd/ or /ˈhɑrfərd/) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2001 census put the population of Hertford at about 24,180. Recent estimates are that it is now around 28,000[citation needed]. The name is Anglo Saxon and means the ford frequented by harts or stags.
Hertford has been the county town of Hertfordshire since Saxon times when it was governed by the king's reeves. By the 13th century, these had been replaced by a bailiff, elected by the burgesses. Charters of 1554 and 1589 established a common council of eleven chief burgesses and a bailiff. Another charter of 1605 changed the bailiff's title to mayor. In 1835, Hertford became a Municipal Corporation; the ratepayers elected twelve councillors, who chose four aldermen, aldermen and councillors composing the council. This body elected the mayor.
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Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire (i/ˈhɑrtfərdʃɪər/ or /ˈhɑrfərdʃər/; abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.
Hertfordshire is one of the home counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London (to the south), Buckinghamshire (to the west), Bedfordshire (including the unitary authorities of Luton and Central Bedfordshire to the north), Cambridgeshire (to the north east) and Essex (to the east).
Hertfordshire was originally the area assigned to a fortress constructed at Hertford under the rule of Edward the Elder in 913. The name Hertford is derived from the Anglo-Saxon heort ford, meaning deer crossing (of a watercourse). The name Hertfordshire first appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1011. Deer feature prominently in many county emblems.
There is evidence of human beings living in Hertfordshire since the Middle Stone Age. It was first farmed during the Neolithic period and permanent habitation appeared at the beginning of the Bronze Age. This was followed by tribes settling in the area during the Iron Age.
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Hertsmere
Hertsmere is a local government district and borough in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Borehamwood. Other towns in the borough include Bushey, Elstree, Radlett and Potters Bar.
The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of the former area of Bushey Urban District and Potters Bar Urban District with Elstree Rural District and part of Watford Rural District (the parish of Aldenham).
The name "Hertsmere" was invented for the new district by combining the name of the county with "mere", an archaic word for boundary. The name is doubly appropriate as the area is now the southern boundary of Hertfordshire with Greater London, while up to 1965 parts of the district were on either side of the county boundary with Middlesex. The name is reflected in the council's coat of arms, which shows a hart upon the battlements of a boundary wall.
The district was awarded borough status by Royal Charter in 1977.
The borough was originally in the Metropolitan Police District, despite being outside the modern Greater London boundaries. It was not transferred to Hertfordshire Constabulary until 2000.
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Hitchin
Coordinates: 51°56′49″N 0°16′59″W / 51.947°N 0.283°W / 51.947; -0.283
Hitchin is a market town in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 30,360.
Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce people mentioned in a 7th century document, the Tribal Hidage. The tribal name is Brittonic rather than Old English and derives from *siccā, meaning 'dry', which is perhaps a reference to the local stream, the Hiz. It has been suggested that Hitchin was the location of Clofeshoh, the place chosen in 673 by Archbishop Theodore of Tarsus during the Synod of Hertford, the first nationwide meeting of representatives of the fledgling Catholic churches of Anglo-Saxon England, to hold annual synods of the churches as Theodore attempted to consolidate and centralise Catholicism in England. By 1086 Hitchin is described as a Royal Manor in the Domesday Book: the feudal services of Avera and Inward, usually found in the eastern counties, especially Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, were due from the sokemen, but the manor of Hitchin was unique in levying Inward. Evidence has been found to suggest that the town was once provided with an earthen bank and ditch fortification, probably in the early tenth century but this did not last. The modern spelling 'Hitchin' first appears in 1618 in the "Hertfordshire Feet of Fines".
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HMS Ark Royal (91)
HMS Ark Royal (pennant number 91) was an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy that served during the Second World War.
Designed in 1934 to fit the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty, Ark Royal was built by Cammell Laird and Company, Ltd. at Birkenhead, England, and completed in November 1938. Her design differed from previous aircraft carriers. Ark Royal was the first ship on which the hangars and flight deck were an integral part of the hull, instead of an add-on or part of the superstructure. Designed to carry a large number of aircraft, she had two hangar deck levels. She served during a period that first saw the extensive use of naval air power; a number of carrier tactics were developed and refined aboard Ark Royal.
Ark Royal served in some of the most active naval theatres of the Second World War. She was involved in the first aerial and U-boat kills of the war, operations off Norway, the search for the German battleship Bismarck, and the Malta Convoys. Ark Royal survived several near misses and gained a reputation as a 'lucky ship'. The Germans incorrectly reported her as sunk on multiple occasions.
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Hoddesdon
Coordinates: 51°45′32″N 0°00′54″W / 51.759°N 0.015°W / 51.759; -0.015
Hoddesdon is a town in the English county of Hertfordshire, situated in the Lea Valley. The town grew up as a coaching stop on the route between Cambridge and London. It is located 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Hertford, 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Waltham Cross and 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Bishop's Stortford. At its height during the 18th century, more than 35 coaches a day would pass through the town. It saw a boom in the mid 20th century as gravel was extracted from the area to be exhausted by the 1970s. The lakes and water pits left behind have been used for local leisure amenities. Today, Hoddesdon has a little light industry but is mainly a London commuter belt town. The town hosted the eighth Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne in 1951. It is twinned with the Belgian city of Dinant.
The Prime Meridian passes just to the east of Hoddesdon.
The town is served by Rye House railway station and nearby Broxbourne railway station.
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Hollywood
Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema. Today, much of the movie industry has dispersed into surrounding areas such as the Westside neighborhood, and the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys, but significant auxiliary industries, such as editing, effects, props, post-production, and lighting companies remain in Hollywood, as does the backlot of Paramount Pictures.
On February 16, 2005, California Assembly Members Jackie Goldberg and Paul Koretz introduced a bill to require California to keep specific records on Hollywood as if it were independent, although it is not the typical practice of the City of Los Angeles to establish specific boundaries for districts or neighborhoods. For this to be done, the boundaries were defined. The bill was unanimously supported by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles City Council. Assembly Bill 588 was approved by the Governor of California on August 28, 2006, and now the district of Hollywood has official borders. The border can be loosely described as the area east of West Hollywood, south of Mulholland Drive, Laurel Canyon, Cahuenga Boulevard, and Barham Boulevard, and the cities of Burbank and Glendale, north of Melrose Avenue and west of the Golden State Freeway and Hyperion Avenue. This includes all of Griffith Park and Los Feliz[citation needed] – two areas that were hitherto considered separate from Hollywood by most Angelenos. The population of the district, including Los Feliz, as of the 2000 census was 123,436 and the median household income was $33,409 in 1999.
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HP postcode area
Coordinates: 51°43′23″N 0°41′17″W / 51.723°N 0.688°W / 51.723; -0.688
The HP postcode area, also known as the Hemel Hempstead postcode area, is a group of twenty-four postcode districts in north west Hertfordshire and East Buckinghamshire.
The main sorting office is in Hemel Hempstead (Park Lane HP1) and the area served includes parts of the Dacorum, Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Buckinghamshire and Wycombe districts.
The approximate coverage of the postcode districts:
Clockwise from the east, the adjacent postcode areas are: AL (St Albans), WD (Watford), SL (Slough), RG (Reading), OX (Oxford), MK (Milton Keynes), LU (Luton).
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Leighton Buzzard
Coordinates: 51°54′59″N 0°39′42″W / 51.9165°N 0.6617°W / 51.9165; -0.6617
Leighton Buzzard is a town in Bedfordshire, England near the Chiltern Hills and lying between Luton and Milton Keynes. It adjoins Linslade and the name Leighton Buzzard is sometimes used to refer to the combination of the two towns; parts of this article also apply to Linslade as well as Leedon.
For local government purposes, the town is part of the Central Bedfordshire district and is administered jointly with Linslade as the civil parish of Leighton-Linslade.
There are a number of theories concerning the derivation of the town's name, but the most likely is that "Leighton" came from Old English language Lēah-tūn, meaning 'farm in a clearing in the woods'. The "Buzzard" was added by the Dean of Lincoln, in whose diocese the town lay in the 12th century. Having two communities called "Leighton" and seeking some means of differentiating them, he added the name of his local Prebendary or representative to that of the town. At that time it was a Theobald de Busar and so over the years the town became known as Leighton Buzzard. The other Leighton became Leighton Bromswold.
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Letchworth
Coordinates: 51°58′41″N 0°13′48″W / 51.978°N 0.230°W / 51.978; -0.230
Letchworth, correctly titled Letchworth Garden City, is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England with a population of 33,600.
The town's name is taken from one of the three villages it surrounded (the other two being Willian and Norton) - all of which featured in the Domesday Book. The land used was purchased by Quakers who had intended to farm the area and build a Quaker community. The current town was laid out by Ebenezer Howard in 1903 using his radical new garden city approach which incorporated elements of the country, alongside city life. Mocked in the press at the time, the design was supported by the Arts and Crafts movement and the Quakers.
As one of the world's first new towns and the first 'Garden city' it had great influence on future town planning and the New Towns movement; it influenced Welwyn Garden City, which used a similar approach and inspired other projects around the world including Canberra, the Australian capital, Hellerau, Germany, small village of Tapanila, Finland, and Mežaparks in Latvia), .
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Leverstock Green
Leverstock Green is a suburb in Hemel Hempstead, in the English county of Hertfordshire. It is located on the eastern edge of the town.
Leverstock Green contains a village school (Leverstock Green Church of England Primary School), village cricket club, village football club (Leverstock Green FC), village hall, village shops, village pubs and Holy Trinity church. Despite its recent amalgamation with Hemel Hempstead, the old names remain in memory of historical times.
Leverstock Green is a "modern" parish, formed about 1849 from parts of the parishes of St Michael's (St Albans), Abbots Langley and Hemel Hempstead.
There is documentary and archaeological evidence that people lived and worked in the immediate area of Leverstock Green from the time of the Roman occupation onwards. Recent research indicates that settlement along Westwick Row may well date back even further to the Iron Age and perhaps the Bronze Age. It seems quite likely that this settlement was a "suburb" of the major Iron Age settlement at Pre Wood just outside St. Albans.
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London
Londoni/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe). London has been described as a world cultural capital. It was the world's most visited city during 2011 and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.
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Luton
Luton (i/ˈluːtən/ LOOT-ən, local /ˈluːʔən/) is a large town, borough and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles (50 km) north of London. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 250,000.
Luton is home to Blue Square Premier team Luton Town Football Club, whose history includes several spells in the top flight of the English league as well as a Football League Cup triumph in 1988. They play at Kenilworth Road stadium, which has been their home since 1905.
London Luton Airport, opened in 1938, is one of England's major airports. During the Second World War it doubled as an RAF base.
The University of Bedfordshire is based in the town.
The Luton Carnival, held on the late May bank holiday, is the largest one-day carnival in Europe.
The town was for many years famous for hat-making, and was also home to a large Vauxhall Motors factory; the head office of Vauxhall Motors is still situated in the town. Car production at the plant began in 1905 and continued until 2002, but commercial vehicle production remains.
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M25 motorway
The M25 motorway, London Ring Motorway, or London Orbital motorway is a 117-mile (188 km) motorway that almost encircles Greater London, England, in the United Kingdom. The motorway was first mooted early in the 20th century. A few sections, based on the now abandoned London Ringways plan, were constructed in the early 1970s and it was completed in 1986. The M25 is one of the world's longest orbital roads and one of the busiest and most congested parts of the British motorway network. 196,000 vehicles were recorded in a single day near London Heathrow Airport. Plans to widen additional sections to eight lanes (four each way) were scaled back in 2009 in response to rising costs.
Originally built mainly as a dual three-lane motorway, much of the motorway has subsequently been widened to dual four-lanes in places and to a dual five-lane section between junctions 12 and 14 and a dual six-lane between junctions 14 and 15. Further widening is in progress with plans for managed motorways on other sections.
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Nash Mills
Coordinates: 51°43′48″N 0°27′04″W / 51.73°N 0.451°W / 51.73; -0.451
Nash Mills is a civil parish within Hemel Hempstead and Dacorum Borough Council on the northern side of the Grand Union Canal, formerly the River Gade, and in the southernmost corner of Hemel Hempstead. It takes its name from the mill owned by John Dickinson in the 19th century (Nash Mill).
Part of its area was reassigned in the 1980s from Three Rivers District Council & Abbots Langley Civil Parish. The borough council ward extends beyond the parish boundary.
A corn-mill in the area was recorded in the Domesday Book in the 11th century; it subsequently belonged, in the Middle Ages, to the Abbey of St Albans. The mill had been converted to papermaking in the late 18th century and subsequently purchased in 1811 by John Dickinson and George Longman
Nash Mill was renowned for its production of tough thin paper for Samuel Bagster's "Pocket Reference Bible". A major fire in 1813 was a setback, but the insurance enabled redevelopment for large scale production. After an experiment in 1887, fine rag paper was produced on electrically driven machines: a successful innovation at Nash Mill.
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North Hertfordshire
North Hertfordshire is a local government district in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Letchworth.
The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the amalgamation of the urban districts of Baldock, Hitchin, Letchworth, and Royston and the Hitchin Rural District.
From eastward clockwise, it borders the districts of East Hertfordshire, Stevenage, Welwyn Hatfield, St Albans in Hertfordshire, Central Bedfordshire, Luton, Central Bedfordshire again, and South Cambridgeshire.
Coordinates: 52°00′N 0°12′W / 52.0°N 0.2°W / 52.0; -0.2
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Piccotts End
Coordinates: 51°46′14″N 0°28′40″W / 51.770487°N 0.477733°W / 51.770487; -0.477733
Piccotts End is a hamlet in Hertfordshire, England situated on the upper River Gade. It includes several medieval cottages and a number of Georgian and Regency villas. One of these, Marchmont, is now a public house. There is an extensively restored 19th century watermill. Piccotts End is positioned on the edge of Hemel Hempstead's extensive urban area, but careful planning has kept green space between it and the town.
In 1953 some unusually fine medieval wall paintings were discovered in some cottages here. The paintings date to between 1470 and 1500 and show a number of religious scenes, including the baptism of Jesus by St John (wearing camel skin complete with head and hoofs) and a scene of the Virgin Mary holding Christ's body in front of the cross. Also depicted are St Peter, St Catherine of Alexandria with her wheel and sword and St Margaret of Antioch emerging from the belly of the dragon. It is believed that these wall paintings show a link to the 'heretical' Cathar beliefs of southern France and adjacent areas of Catalonia and northern Italy.[1] The building was also found to have a hidden room in the roof, suggesting it was a priest hole and an Elizabethan painted room in the next door cottage. In 1827 the same building had been converted into the West Herts Infirmary, the first cottage hospital, by Sir Astley Cooper, providing free medical services.
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Pitstone
Coordinates: 51°49′32″N 0°37′49″W / 51.82564°N 0.63020°W / 51.82564; -0.63020
Pitstone (formerly Pightelsthorn) is a village and civil parish within the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located at the foot of the Chiltern Hills, about seven miles east of Aylesbury and six miles south of Leighton Buzzard. It directly adjoins the village of Ivinghoe, and the two villages share a number of their facilities.
The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'Picel's thorn tree'. It was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Pincelestorne.
Pitstone was given to the abbey at Ashridge by the Earl of Cornwall in 1283. In 1290 King Edward I spent Christmas in Pitstone at the estate that had been given to the abbey, and stayed for five weeks, during which time he held parliament in Ashridge. His stay caused great inconvenience to the local inhabitants of the village, who were legally obliged to keep the king and his court.
More recently Pitstone was the site of a cement works which closed in the 1990s. The site has now been demolished and has been redeveloped for housing and business use. The new housing district is named 'Castlemead' (after the Castle Cement Company who were the last operators of the site) and the business area already contains numerous units with construction ongoing.
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Potters Bar
Coordinates: 51°41′53″N 0°10′59″W / 51.698°N 0.183°W / 51.698; -0.183
Potters Bar is a town in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire, England, located 18 miles (29 km) north of Central London. In 2001 it had a population of 21,618.
The town originated in the early 13th century and remained a small settlement until the arrival of the Great Northern Railway in 1850. It is part of the London commuter belt.
The origin of the Potters element of the town's name is uncertain but is generally thought to be either a reference to a Roman pottery, believed to have been sited locally, or alternatively to the Pottere family who lived in the South Mimms parish. The Bar is thought to refer to the gates leading from the South Mimms parish and into the Enfield Chase parish, or possibly from some sort of toll on the Great North Road. The original "Bar" is said to have been at what is now the Green Man pub, or at the current entrance to Morven House.
Potters Bar is located on the Great North Road, one of two road routes from the City of London to the north of England. The road was originally numbered as the A1, and later the A1000.
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Radlett
Coordinates: 51°40′55″N 0°18′50″W / 51.682°N 0.314°W / 51.682; -0.314
Radlett is a small affluent village in the county of Hertfordshire between St Albans and Borehamwood on Watling Street with a population of approximately 8,000. It is located in the council district of Hertsmere and is covered by two wards, Aldenham East and Aldenham West. It is located inside the M25 motorway.
Radlett lies in the valley of Tykes Water, a stream that runs north from Aldenham Reservoir to the River Colne. Now entirely surrounded by the Metropolitan Green Belt, it is seeing significant 'infill' development and pressure to relax the Green Belt restrictions.[citation needed]
Radlett is one of the most prosperous places in Britain. The town contains many substantial detached houses with large gardens. In the older centre there are also a few streets with Victorian semi detached and terraced houses. Over the past few years, the combination of its proximity to London and good transport links have meant that Radlett has become a property hotspot[citation needed] with majority of roads with an average price of over £1,000,000.
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Rickmansworth
Coordinates: 51°38′18″N 0°27′57″W / 51.6383°N 0.4659°W / 51.6383; -0.4659
Rickmansworth is the administrative seat of the Three Rivers District Council in Hertfordshire, England. With a population of 14,571 recorded at the 2001 census, Rickmansworth is a small town in South-West Hertfordshire, located mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne. The nearest large town is Watford, 4.4 miles (7.1 km) to the east. It grew dramatically during the Victorian era, and then again during the 1920s and 1930s as part of the Metro-land area, due to the extension of Metropolitan Railway, and became a commuter town. Chiltern Main Line diesel-express trains from Marylebone station, London, via Harrow-on-the Hill, to Aylesbury–change for Birmingham–and fast, electric Metropolitan trains from the City of London, via Baker Street, to Amersham-on-the-Hill (all stopping at Rickmansworth station) together with the rural surroundings, have all contributed to the growth of Rickmansworth.
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Sawbridgeworth
Coordinates: 51°48′50″N 0°09′00″E / 51.814°N 0.150°E / 51.814; 0.150
Sawbridgeworth is a small, mainly residential, town and also a civil parish in Hertfordshire, England.
Sawbridgeworth is four miles south of Bishop's Stortford, twelve miles east of Hertford and nine miles north of Epping. It lies on the A1184 and has a railway station that links to Liverpool Street station in London. The river Stort flows through the east of the town, past the Maltings (now a small business and residential area).
Nearby towns and cities: Bishop's Stortford, Harlow
Nearby villages: High Wych, Spellbrook, Much Hadham
Prior to the Norman Conquest, most of the area was owned by the Saxon Angmar the Staller.
The Manor of "Sabrixteworde" (one of the many spellings previously associated with the town) was recorded in the Domesday Book. After the Battle of Hastings it was granted to Geoffrey de Mandeville by William the Conqueror. Local notables have included Sir John Leventhorpe, who was an executor of King Henry V's will, and Anne Boleyn, who was given the Pishiobury/Pishobury estate, located to the south of the town.
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St Albans
Coordinates: 51°45′18″N 0°20′10″W / 51.755°N 0.336°W / 51.755; -0.336
St Albans /sɨnt ˈɔːlbənz/ is a city in southern Hertfordshire, England, around 22 miles (35 km) north of central London, which forms the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans.
It is a historic market town, and is now a sought-after dormitory town within the London commuter belt. Property prices are notoriously high within the district, which is one of the most expensive in the UK.
St Albans has two official demonyms: Verulamian and Old Albanian. St Albans was a settlement of pre-Roman origin named Verlamion (or Verulam) by the Ancient British, Catuvellauni tribe. It became the first major town on the old Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north and became the Roman city of Verulamium.
Saint Alban, the first British Christian martyr, was beheaded in AD 308 by Maximian on the orders of Emperor Diocletian, who denounced the Christian faith and had ordered the deaths of all subjects and allies of the Roman Empire who refused to give up the faith. Saint Alban consequently gave the town its modern name.
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Stevenage
Stevenage is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England. It is situated to the east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), and is between Letchworth Garden City to the north, and Welwyn Garden City to the south.
Stevenage is roughly 30 miles (50 km) north of central London. Its population was 1,430 in 1801, 4,049 in 1901, 79,724 in 2001 and 84,651 in 2007. The largest increase occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, after Stevenage was designated a new town under the New Towns Act of 1946.
Two films have been filmed and set in Stevenage, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush and Boston Kickout. Spy Game was partly filmed in Stevenage but set in Washington, D.C. The BBC sitcom Saxondale was set and filmed almost entirely in Stevenage.
Stevenage may derive from Old English stiþen āc / stiðen āc / stithen ac (various Old English dialects cited here) meaning '(place at) the strong oak'.
The name was recorded as Stithenæce, c.1060 and Stigenace in 1086 in the Domesday Book.
The present site of Stevenage lies near a Roman road that ran from Verulamium to Baldock. Some Romano-British remains were discovered during the building of the New Town, and a hoard of 2,000 silver Roman coins was discovered in 1986 during new house building in the Chells Manor part of Stevenage. The most substantial evidence of activity from Roman times are the Six Hills, six tumuli by the side of the old Great North Road - presumably the burial places of a local family.
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Tesco
Coordinates: 51°42′18.89″N 0°1′36.37″W / 51.7052472°N 0.0267694°W / 51.7052472; -0.0267694
Tesco plc (LSE: TSCO) is a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues (after Wal-Mart and Carrefour) and the second-largest measured by profits (after Wal-Mart). It has stores in 14 countries across Asia, Europe and North America and is the grocery market leader in the UK (where it has a market share of around 30%), Malaysia, the Republic of Ireland and Thailand.
The company was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls. The Tesco name first appeared in 1924, after Cohen purchased a shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and combined those initials with the first two letters of his surname, and the first Tesco store opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Middlesex. His business expanded rapidly, and by 1939 he had over 100 Tesco stores across the country. Originally a UK-focused grocery retailer, since the early 1990s Tesco has increasingly diversified geographically and into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, petrol and software; financial services; telecoms and internet services; DVD rental; and music downloads.
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Tring
Coordinates: 51°47′46″N 0°39′33″W / 51.7962°N 0.6592°W / 51.7962; -0.6592
Tring is a small market town and also a civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire, England. Situated 30 miles (48 km) north-west of London and linked to London by the old Roman road of Akeman Street, by the modern A41, by the Grand Union Canal and by rail lines to Euston Station, Tring is now largely a commuter town in the London commuter belt.
Tring is positioned in west Hertfordshire, adjacent to the Buckinghamshire border, at a low point in the Chiltern Hills known as the 'Tring Gap'. This has been used as a crossing point since ancient times, being at the junction of the Icknield Way and under the Romans Akeman Street, the major Roman road linking London to Cirencester. It is transected east and west by the ancient earthwork called Grim's Dyke. It is located at the summit level of the Grand Union Canal and both the canal and railway pass through in deep cuttings. Tring railway cutting is 4 km (2.5 mi) long and an average of 12 m (39 ft) deep and is celebrated in a series of coloured lithographs by John Cooke Bourne showing its construction in the 1830s.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
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Uxbridge
Coordinates: 51°32′25″N 0°28′40″W / 51.5404°N 0.4778°W / 51.5404; -0.4778
Uxbridge ( /ˈʌksbrɪdʒ/) is a large town located in west London, England and is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. It forms part of the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is located 15 miles (24.1 km) west-northwest of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It historically formed part of the parish of Hillingdon in the county of Middlesex and was a significant local commercial centre from an early time. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century it expanded and increased in population, becoming a municipal borough in 1955 and has formed part of Greater London since 1965. Uxbridge is a significant retail and commercial centre, and is the location of Brunel University and the Uxbridge campus of Buckinghamshire New University. The town is close to the boundary with Buckinghamshire, which is locally the River Colne.
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Ware, Hertfordshire
Coordinates: 51°49′01″N 0°01′45″W / 51.817°N 0.0292°W / 51.817; -0.0292
Ware is a town of around 18,000 people in Hertfordshire, England close to the county town of Hertford. It is also a civil parish in East Hertfordshire district. The Prime Meridian passes to the east of Ware.
The town lies on the north-south A10 road which is partly shared with the east-west A414 (for Hertford to the west and Harlow to the east). There is a large viaduct over the River Lea at Kings Meads. The £3.6m two-mile bypass opened on 17 August 1976. At the north end of the bypass is the Wodson Park Sports Centre, with an athletics track, and Hanbury Manor, a hotel and country club. The former route of the A10 is now the A1170. The railway station is on the Hertford East Branch Line and operated by Greater Anglia and is only single track.
Archaeology has shown that Ware has been occupied since at least the Mesolithic period (which ended about 4000 BC) The Romans had a sizable settlement here and foundations of several buildings, including a temple, and two cemeteries have been found. A well-preserved Roman skeleton of a teenage girl has also been found. Ware was on Ermine Street, the Roman road from London to Lincoln. It has been said that Ware is one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe.
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Warner's End
Warners End is a neighbourhood or district of Hemel Hempstead, a new town in Hertfordshire, England. It was the fourth of the new districts built during the expansion of Hemel Hempstead into a new town with work on its construction commencing in 1953.
The place name can be traced back to John Warner mentioned in land documents from 1609 and Warners End farm is notable on historic maps. Its site is now partly occupied by Fields End Junior School. Some of its buildings survive on Long Chaulden.
The country house, Northridge Park , was built in 1890, and was the home of Nathaniel Micklem QC, Liberal MP for the Watford division of Hertfordshire between 1906 and 1910. Its site is now occupied by William Crook House an old people's home.
Like other new town districts in Hemel Hempstead , Warners End has its own community shopping parade called Stoneycroft. The pub , built by the New Town corporation in 1956, is called 'The Top of the World' in honour of it being located at the highest point in the new town. The district was virtually complete by 1959.
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Watford
Watfordi/ˈwɒtfərd/ is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated 18 miles (29 km) northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.
Watford was created as an urban district under the Local Government Act 1894, and became a municipal borough by grant of a charter in 1922. The borough had 79,726 inhabitants at the time of the 2001 Census. The most recent official estimates put the population of Watford at 79,600 at mid-2006.
The nearby areas of Croxley Green, Bushey, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Kings Langley, Abbots Langley, Carpenders Park and South Oxhey, located in Three Rivers and Hertsmere districts, also form part of the Watford postcode area. The Watford subdivision of the Greater London Urban Area, which includes much of the neighbouring districts, had a total population of 120,960 in the 2001 census.
Watford stands on a low hill near the point at which the River Colne was forded by travellers between London and the Midlands. This route, originally a pre-Roman trackway, departed from the ancient Roman Watling Street at Stanmore, heading for the Gade valley and thence up the Bulbourne valley to a low and easily traversed section of the Chiltern Hills near Tring. The modern High Street follows the route of this road.
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Welwyn Garden City
Coordinates: 51°48′22″N 0°11′36″W / 51.8062°N 0.1932°W / 51.8062; -0.1932
Welwyn Garden City ( /ˈwɛlɪn/) is a town within the Welwyn Hatfield borough of Hertfordshire, England. It is located approximately 20 miles (32 km) from Kings Cross. Welwyn Garden City was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948).
It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and exemplifies the physical, social and cultural planning ideals of the periods in which it was built. Because of its historical importance it attracts visitors from around the world.
Welwyn Garden City was founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the 1920s following his previous experiment in Letchworth Garden City. Howard had called for the creation of planned towns that were to combine the benefits of the city and the countryside and to avoid the disadvantages of both. The Garden Cities and Town Planning Association had defined a garden city as
"a town designed for healthy living and industry of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life but not larger, surrounded by a rural belt; the whole of the land being in public ownership, or held in trust for the community"
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Welwyn Hatfield
The Borough of Welwyn Hatfield is a local government district in southern Hertfordshire, England.
Its covers the two towns of Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, along with numerous smaller settlements from Woolmer Green in the north to Little Heath in the south. Each of the towns has a railway station on the East Coast Main Line and they are close to the A1 road. It borders the London Borough of Enfield.
The district was formed on 1 April 1974, as a merger of the Welwyn Garden City urban district, with the Hatfield and Welwyn rural districts. It petitioned for borough status in 2005, which was agreed to by the Privy Council on 15 November 2005. In April 2006 a charter conferring borough status was granted, and the title of the council officially changed to Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council on 22 May 2006. The first Mayor of the borough, John Hawkins, was chosen on 22 May.
Set within the London green belt, the towns still retain something of their own identities. Welwyn Garden City has a famous heritage being one of only two Garden Cities in the country, and is uniquely both Garden City and designated New Town. They function to some extent as dormitory towns for householders who work in London. The Welwyn Viaduct is a locally important landmark.
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West Herts College
West Herts College is a college in Watford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The College has campuses in Watford, Hemel Hempstead and Kings Langley.
Courses offered are academic, vocational and apprenticeships. The College works with local secondary schools to offer entry to applicants of 14 years of age and older. Some school pupils may transfer their full-time education to the College in order to restart their education or to take some vocational subjects at Level 1, either as full subjects or as "tasters" (to judge suitability). A few GCSE subjects are offered to gifted pupils. A full range of A-level subjects is offered to students as an alternative to school.
Tertiary qualifications (foundation and extended degrees and Higher National Diplomas) are offered, overseen by the University of Hertfordshire (UH). The foundation degrees may lead on to full BA or BSc awards elsewhere, while extended degrees provide the entry requirements for a degree course at UH. In addition a number of stand-alone courses are offered to part-time students for personal development or leisure.
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Westbrook Hay School
Westbrook Hay Prep School is a co-educational independent school which educates children from rising 3 –13 years. The school is primarily a day school but with flexi boarding.
The school took on its present name at its present site in the 1960s, previously it had been a boarding school for boys called Gadebridge Park School in nearby Hemel Hempstead from 1914 until it was forced out of its premises, Gadebridge House by the Commission for New Towns as part of its development of the new town. It is a thriving independent Prep school which educates boys and girls from rising 3 –13 years. The school’s beautiful rural location boasts 26 acres of parkland overlooking the Bourne valley. Located just off the A 41, between Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, there is easy access to all major routes. This unique setting offers a secure environment within which children explore and enjoy all that childhood has to offer.
During the 1950s, while the estate was in private ownership, the 650 yard drive was used for speed hill climbing.
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Woodhall Farm
Coordinates: 51°45′09″N 0°28′09″W / 51.7526°N 0.4692°W / 51.7526; -0.4692
Woodhall Farm is a neighbourhood on the northern tip of Hemel Hempstead in the county of Hertfordshire. It was built on the former Brocks Fireworks site.
Situated on the northern edge of Hemel Hempstead towards Redbourn, Woodhall Farm was built in the mid to late 1970s on the former Brock's Fireworks site with a mix of private and housing association stock. The builder was Fairview Estates and it has property ranging from 4 bedroom detached houses down to one bedroom low -rise flats. The area has a shopping centre with a Sainsbury's Supermarket, Newsagents, Fish & Chip shop and Dry Cleaners and a Chemist shop. It also has two infant and middle schools and a doctors surgery serving the local area.
Woodhall Farm is home to approximately 5661 people [1], and in keeping with the new towns' (see New towns in the United Kingdom) ethos, Woodhall was built with an emphasis to provide a neighbourhood shopping complex to serve the local community.
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Adrian IV
Pope Adrian IV (c. 1100 – 1 September 1159), born Nicholas Breakspear or Breakspeare, was Pope from 1154 to 1159.
Adrian IV has been the only Englishman so far to occupy the papal chair. It is generally believed that Nicholas Breakspear was born at Breakspear Farm in the parish of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire and received his early education at the Abbey School, St Albans (St Albans School).
His father was Robert, who later became a monk at St Albans. Nicholas himself, however, was refused admission to the monastery, being told by the abbot to "wait to go on with his schooling so that he might be considered more suitable" (Abbey chronicles). In the event, he did not wait and went instead to Paris and finally became a canon regular of the cloister of St. Rufus monastery near Arles. He rose to be prior and soon thereafter was unanimously elected abbot. This election has been traditionally dated to 1137, but evidence from the abbey's chronicles suggests it occurred about 1145.
His reforming zeal as abbot led to the lodging of complaints against him at Rome; but these merely attracted to him the favourable attention of Pope Eugene III, who created him Cardinal Bishop of Albano in December 1149.
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Alfred Gerrard
Alfred Horace "Gerry" Gerrard RBS (7 May 1899 – 13 June 1998) was an English modernist sculptor. He was head of the sculpture department at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1925 and professor of sculpture there from 1949 to 1968, where he taught a number of well-known sculptors.
Gerrard was born on 7 May 1899 in Hartford, Cheshire where his family had been farming for four centuries. He was the youngest of five children and was directly descended from the 16th century herbalist John Gerard. Gerrard was educated at Northwich Technical School which he left in 1916.
During the First World War he served in the army with the Cameron Highlanders, the Black Watch and the Gordon Highlanders and in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) from 1917. In the RFC, Gerrard flew Farman MF.11s and F.E.2Bs as a night bomber pilot, crashing and injuring his back on one occasion when his undercarriage fell off.
After being demobilized Gerrard studied at the Manchester School of Art in 1919 and at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1920 where Henry Tonks was his teacher and contemporaries included Samuel Rabinovitch. In 1925, Tonks appointed Gerrard head of the school's sculpture department, a position he held until 1948 after which he was Professor of Sculpture until 1968 and then Emeritus Professor. In the 1920s, Gerrard elected to wear a standard set of clothes – sports jacket, corduroy trousers, a collarless shirt and a yellow stock. He bought multiple copies of these items and wore them regularly for decades.
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Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ( /ˈbʊlɪn/, /bəˈlɪn/ or /bʊˈlɪn/); c.1501 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the start of the English Reformation. Anne was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, and was educated in the Netherlands and France, largely as a maid of honour to Claude of France. She returned to England in early 1522, in order to marry her Irish cousin James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond; however, the marriage plans ended in failure and she secured a post at court as maid of honour to Henry VIII's queen consort, Catherine of Aragon.
Early in 1523 there was a secret betrothal between Anne and Henry Percy, son of the 5th Earl of Northumberland. However, in January of 1524 Cardinal Thomas Wolsey broke the betrothal, Anne was sent back home to Hever Castle, and Percy was married to Lady Mary Talbot, to whom he had been betrothed since adolescence. In February/March 1526 Henry VIII began his pursuit of Anne. She resisted his attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress as her sister Mary had. It soon became the one absorbing object of Henry's desires to annul his marriage to Queen Catherine so he would be free to marry Anne. When it became clear that Pope Clement VII would not annul the marriage, the breaking of the power of the Catholic Church in England began. In 1532, Henry granted her the Marquesate of Pembroke.
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Anthony Davidson
Anthony Denis Davidson (born 18 April 1979) is a British former Formula One racing driver from England, born in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. He has raced for Minardi, Super Aguri and been a test and/or reserve driver for the British American Racing, Honda and Brawn GP teams. He failed to score a single World Championship point during his Formula One career. He is currently an analyst for the new Sky Sports F1 HD channel, factory driver for the Peugeot Le Mans team and simulator driver for Mercedes GP.
Davidson began kart racing in 1987, competing in various British, European and North American championships. He won three British championships (93, 94, 95), one Italian championship and was runner-up in the Formula A European championship in 1996. In 1999, he moved to single seater cars, racing Formula Fords and winning the 1600 cc Kent engine class of the British Formula Ford festival that year. The following season, he was runner-up in the British Formula Ford championship but did win the blue riband Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch and scooped the McLaren/Autosport Young Driver of the Year Award.
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Arthur Evans
Sir Arthur John Evans FRS (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete and for developing the concept of Minoan civilization from the structures and artifacts found there and elsewhere throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Evans was the first to define Cretan scripts Linear A and Linear B, as well as an earlier pictographic writing.
Along with Heinrich Schliemann, Evans was a pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The two men knew of each other. Evans visited Schliemann's sites. Schliemann had planned to excavate at Knossos, but died before fulfilling that dream. Evans bought the site and stepped in to take charge of the project, which was then still in its infancy. He continued Schliemann's concept of Mycenaean civilization but soon found that he needed to distinguish another civilization, the Minoan.
In addition to his archaeological contributions, Evans fulfilled a role in the British Empire for which there is no proper word in formal English. Although he was not a professional statesman or soldier, and was probably never a paid agent of the government, he nevertheless negotiated or played a role in negotiating unofficially with foreign powers in the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire, and subsequently the Turkish Republic, recognized this role, according to him informally the status of an ambassador. He was, on request of the revolutionary organizations of the peoples of the Balkans, a significant player in the formation of the now-defunct nation of Yugoslavia. That nation sent representatives to his funeral in 1941. This role was one outcome of the informal network of associations created by the 19-century British educational system, of which Arthur was, so to speak, a charter member.
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Ashley George Old
Ashley George Old (b. 1913, d. 2001) was an artist best known for documenting the lives of prisoners of war forced to construct the Thailand-Burma Railway. He trained at Northamptonshire College of Art, then the Clapham School of Art.
During World War II he was stationed in Singapore, and when it fell to the Japanese in February 1942 he was taken prisoner and sent to work on the aforementioned Death Railway.
The brutal POW camp conditions and medical treatments in River Valley Road Camp, Changi Prison and Tamuan were documented by Old in a series of drawings and paintings. Many of these were buried in the ground and retrieved after the war. They eventually found their way to the State Library of Victoria in Australia where they form part of the Major Arthur Moon collection and can be viewed using the link below.
Often the works are of horrific subject material but contain a haunting beauty. The Major Arthur Moon collection catalogue cover shows a painting of a beckoning hand titled 'Bomb wound (air attack)' and is compared in the narrative to Picasso's Guernica as a truly extraordinary image of war.
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Astley Cooper
Sir Astley Paston Cooper, 1st Baronet (23 August 1768 – 12 February 1841) was an English surgeon and anatomist, who made historical contributions to otology, vascular surgery, the anatomy and pathology of the mammary glands and testicles, and the pathology and surgery of hernia.
Cooper was born at Brooke Hall in Brooke, Norfolk on 23 August 1768 and baptised at the parish church on 9 September. His father, Dr. Samuel Cooper, was a clergyman of the Church of England; his mother Maria Susanna Bransby was the author of several novels. At the age of sixteen he was sent to London and placed under Henry Cline (1750–1827), surgeon to St. Thomas' Hospital. From the first he devoted himself to the study of anatomy, and had the privilege of attending the lectures of John Hunter. In 1789 he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy at St. Thomas's Hospital, where in 1791 he became joint lecturer with Cline in anatomy and surgery, and in 1800 he was appointed surgeon to Guy's Hospital on the death of his uncle, William Cooper.
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Ben Chaplin
Ben Chaplin (born Benedict John Greenwood; 31 July 1969), is an English actor.
Chaplin, the youngest of four children, was born in London in 1970 (according to IMDB.com), the son of Cynthia (née Chaplin), a drama teacher, and Peter Greenwood, an engineer. He took his stage name after his mother's maiden name. He was brought up in Windsor, Berkshire, and attended Hurtwood House. At the age of 17, he enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
After finishing his training, he moved to London full time, where he joined a repertory theatre company. Between work as a statistician for the London Transport Authority and clerical jobs, he began landing roles in BBC dramas and British films. James Ivory and Ismail Merchant cast him as a servant in The Remains of the Day.
Chaplin first came to public attention for his performance as Matthew Malone in the first series of the sitcom Game On. After departing the series (his character was later recast with Neil Stuke) he co-starred in several films including The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line, Murder By Numbers, The Touch with Michelle Yeoh, Birthday Girl and Dorian Gray (2009) as society artist Basil Hallward.
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Benny Hill
Benny Hill (21 January 1924 – 20 April 1992) was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.
Alfred Hawthorne Hill was born in Southampton and attended Taunton's School. During World War II, he was evacuated to Bournemouth.[citation needed]
After leaving school, Hill worked at Woolworth's, as a milkman, a bridge operator, a driver and a drummer before he finally got a foot in the door of the entertainment industry by becoming assistant stage manager with a touring review. He was called up in 1942 and trained as a mechanic, but transferred to the Combined Services Entertainment division before the end of the war. It was there that he met his future agent, Richard Stone, then a colonel.[citation needed]
Inspired by the "star comedians" of British music hall shows, Hill set out to make his mark in show business. For the stage, he changed his first name to 'Benny', in homage to his favourite comedian, Jack Benny. Hill began appearing at working men's clubs and Masonic dinners before moving on to nightclub and theatre jobs. Hill auditioned for Soho's famed Windmill Theatre (home of Revudeville, a popular show of singers, comedians and nude girls), but he was not hired. Hill's first job in professional theatre as a performer was as Reg Varney's straight man, beating a then unknown Peter Sellers to the role.[citation needed]
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Chris Eagles
Christopher Mark "Chris" Eagles (born 19 November 1985 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire) is an English footballer who plays for Bolton Wanderers. Primarily an attacking midfielder/winger he has previously played for Manchester United, Watford, Sheffield Wednesday, Dutch club NEC Nijmegen and Burnley.
Growing up, Eagles was a season ticket holder at Tottenham Hotspur, whom he went to see with his family. Originally coming through the youth system at Watford, Eagles left when he was 14 to join the Manchester United academy. The compensation owed to Watford for this move would later form part of the package which took Danny Webber in the opposite direction.
Eagles made his first-team debut for Manchester United on 28 October 2003 as a second-half substitute for Kieran Richardson in an extra-time win away to Leeds United in the League Cup. He played once more that season, this time as a substitute for Cristiano Ronaldo as United lost 2–0 away to West Bromwich Albion in a League Cup Fourth Round tie.
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Chris Pig
Chris Pig is a North-London based printmaker. Born in Hertfordshire, UK in 1965, his passion for printmaking in its many and various guises began at his secondary school which was, unusually, equipped with a decent press. His artistic education continued through Hertfordshire College of art and Design, Exeter College of Art and Design and Winchester College of Art. Part of his MA was completed in Spain, a country which he fell in love with and returned to in order to establish a studio. Some of the work created during his time in the southern Spanish city of Cordoba reflects the intricate Islamic patterns left behind by the town's historical inhabitants. His chronicling of North London life often attempts to articulate the venal side of human relationships.
Pig has worked as a lecturer and freelance teacher across the UK and beyond.
Society of Wood Engravers 'Originals' 2009 Award (joint winner with Hilary Paynter)
" 'Outcasts come out of the dark; tiny vistas tower': Catherine Fox (The Atlanta Journal)
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Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer, CC (born December 13, 1929) is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1958's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include The Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther, and The Man Who Would Be King.
In a career that spans seven decades and includes substantial roles in each of the dramatic arts, Plummer is probably best known to audiences as the autocratic widower Captain Georg Ludwig von Trapp in the hit 1965 musical film The Sound of Music alongside Julie Andrews. Plummer has also ventured into various television projects, including the legendary miniseries The Thorn Birds.
His most recent film roles include the The Insider as Mike Wallace, the Disney-Pixar 2009 film Up as Charles Muntz, the Shane Acker production 9 as 1, The Last Station as Leo Tolstoy, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus as Doctor Parnassus, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as Henrik Vanger, and Beginners as Hal.
Plummer has won numerous awards and accolades for his work, including an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a SAG Award, and a BAFTA Award. With his win at the age of 82 in 2012 for Beginners, Plummer is the oldest actor ever to win an Academy Award.
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Claire Skinner
Claire L. Skinner (born 1965) is an English actress, known in the United Kingdom for her television career.
Born and brought up in Hemel Hempstead, Skinner, the youngest daughter of a shopkeeper and an Irish-born secretary, was shy as a child. Her dream was to be an actress and she immersed herself in her ambition. She acted all the time, neglecting school work, at Cavendish School in Hemel Hempstead, and "barely scraped through [her] A-levels". She went on to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Her first role was in Hanky Park, by Walter Greenwood at the Oldham Repertory Theatre, which she describes as a "really traditional start."
Skinner is known for her role as Clare in the British TV comedy Life Begins and more recently as Sue in the BBC's award-winning sitcom Outnumbered. For many years, she has preferred theatre to screen roles because she's been disappointed with her TV projects ("apart from Mike Leigh's stuff"), "not just when you see the final thing, but also because it hasn't taken off."
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Colin Edwin
Colin Edwin (born 2 July 1970) is an Australian progressive rock musician. Since December 1993 he is a member of the British band Porcupine Tree, where he plays both fretted and fretless bass guitar as well as double bass and guimbri. Edwin is also a member of Ex-Wise Heads, a three-piece group that mixes ethnic, ambient, and post-modern influences, as well as a metal-influenced project, Random Noise Generator. In 2009, Edwin released his debut solo album titled Third Vessel, available through Burning Shed.
Colin Edwin was born on 2 July 1970 in Melbourne, Australia. In December 1993 he joined United Kingdom progressive rock band, Porcupine Tree. He plays bass guitar, double bass and guimbri.
In 2001 Edwin played double bass on an album by the United Kingdom duo No-Man, which is Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson's side project. Edwin and Wilson are friends from school. "Steven was instrumental in introducing me to several types of different music," he explained.
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Dave Vanian
Dave Vanian (born David Lett, 12 October 1956, Hemel Hempstead, England) is a rock musician, famous for being the lead singer of the punk rock band The Damned. The band formed in 1976 in London and Vanian is the only ever-present member of the group. They were the first of the British punk bands to release a single, an album, have a record hit the UK charts, and tour the United States.
Lett changed his name to Dave Vanian (pronounced as in "Transylvanian") when he became a musician, having previously worked as a gravedigger.
He was one of the early influencers of gothic fashion by wearing dark and otherworldly clothing both on-stage and off. In November 1976, the British music magazine, NME, commented that Vanian "resembles a runaway from The Addams Family".
He has kept his personal life out of the limelight, even opting out of any input towards The Damned biography The Light At The End Of The Tunnel by Carol Clerk, he also leads the rockabilly band David Vanian & the Phantom Chords. He is known to be a fan of renaissance art, film noir and horror movies.[citation needed]
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Frankie Vaughan
Frankie Vaughan, CBE, DL (3 February 1928 – 17 September 1999) was an English singer of traditional pop music, who issued more than 80 singles in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after one of his early hits.
He was born Frank Abelson to a Jewish family in Devon Street, Liverpool, England. The name 'Vaughan' came from a grandmother whose first grandson he was, who used to call Frank 'my number one' grandson, in whose Russian accent 'one' sounded like 'Vaughan'.
In his early life, he was a member of the Lancaster Lads Club, a member group of the National Association of Boys' Clubs in the UK, and in his career he was a major contributor to the clubs, dedicating his monetary compensation from one song each year to them. He was an evacuee during World War II. He started out at the club intending to be a boxer. Then at age 14 he received a scholarship to the Lancaster College of Art, where he sang in the dance band. After a stint in the Royal Army Medical Corps in World War II (where he spent most of his time boxing) he returned to art school, this time at the Leeds College of Art.
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G. A. Jellicoe
Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe (1900–1996) was an English landscape architect, garden designer, Architect and author.
Jellicoe was born in Chelsea. He studied at the Architectural Association in London in 1919 and won a Rome Scholarship in 1923 which enabled him to research his first book Italian Gardens of the Renaissance with John C. Shepherd. This pioneering study did much to re-awaken interest in this great period of landscape design and through its copious photographic illustrations publicized the then perilously decayed condition of many of the gardens. In 1929 he was a founding member of the Landscape Institute and from 1939-49 he was its President. In 1948 he became the founding President of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA). From 1954-68 he was a member of Royal Fine Art Commission and from 1967-74 a Trustee of Tate Gallery. He died in 1996, the best-known English landscape architect of his generation.
Italian Gardens of the Renaissance (with J Shepherd) 1926
A Landscape plan for Sark. This report was presented to an informal meeting of the members of the 1967 Baroque Gardens of Austria. 1932
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Ian Lygo
Ian Lygo (born c. 1958), a civil servant, from Hemel Hempstead, is the former sole holder of the record for the most consecutive appearances by a contestant on a television game show, having made 75 appearances on the UK game show 100% in late 1998, with the 75th appearance occurring on 14 December of that year. On November 30, 2004, this record was tied by Ken Jennings on Jeopardy!. However, because Jennings lost on his 75th appearance, Lygo is the sole holder of the record for most consecutive wins on a game show. Since he won £100 for each game, his total winnings were £7,500.
Unlike Jennings, however, who was defeated and became a national folkhero and wanted spokesperson, Lygo would not be afforded the same treatment.
After his 73rd win, Grundy Productions, the producers of 100%, informed Lygo that they had changed the rules. From now on they were limiting the number of wins to only twenty-five, after receiving letters from viewers saying they were fed up of him winning day after day, week after week. "I was given no warning," Lygo told The Daily Mirror. "The producer came up and said, 'We are changing the format.' He said there was a new limit. I had no choice in the matter. I was told I could do two more shows and that was that. I wanted it to be made plain on the show that I was being stopped, but that didn't happen. The announcer (Robin Houston) just said, 'Well done' and 'goodbye.'" According to UKGameShows.com, he believed that retiring after 100 episodes would have been more fitting with the show's theme. Lygo was, however, given a bottle of champagne by Grundy for his achievement.
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James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks and Jeffery Deaver; a new novel, written by William Boyd, is planned for release in 2013. Additionally, Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny.
The fictional British Secret Service agent has also been adapted for television, radio, comic strip and video game formats as well as being used in the longest running and the second-highest grossing film franchise to date, which started in 1962 with Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as Bond. As of 2012, there have been twenty two films in the Eon Productions series, with a twenty third, Skyfall, due for release on 26 October 2012. The film will star Daniel Craig in his third portrayal of Bond: he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series. There have also been two independent productions of Bond films, Casino Royale, a 1967 spoof, and Never Say Never Again, a 1983 remake of an earlier Eon-produced film, Thunderball.
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Jonathan Rigby
Jonathan Rigby is an English film critic and actor who has written the following books - English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema (2000), Christopher Lee: The Authorised Screen History (2001), Roxy Music: Both Ends Burning (2005), American Gothic: Sixty Years of Horror Cinema (2007) and Studies in Terror: Landmarks of Horror Cinema (2011). He has been described in Video Watchdog magazine as occupying 'a proud place in the advance guard of film researchers, writers and critics.'
In his parallel career as an actor, Rigby played Kenneth Horne throughout the eighteen-month run of the West End hit Round the Horne ... Revisited (2003-5); the production also led to a BBC Four film and an appearance at the 2004 Royal Variety Performance. In 2008-9 he reprised the role in a new stage show called Round the Horne - Unseen and Uncut and in the BBC Radio special Twice Ken is Plenty.
Rigby's stage adaptation of Dracula toured during 1997, the original novel's centenary year. In addition, he has contributed audio commentaries to the DVD releases of The House that Dripped Blood, Prey, House of Mortal Sin and several others. In 2010 he was series consultant on the three-part BBC Four documentary A History of Horror, also making a brief appearance as Dracula in the opening episode. The same year, he became an Associate Research Fellow of the Cinema and Television History Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester.
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Jordan Parkes
Jordan David Parkes (born 26 July 1989) is an English professional association footballer, playing as a full-back.
Parkes left Parmiter's School in Garston, Hertfordshire aged sixteen in order to pursue a football career at Watford. His debut came in a 2006 League Cup second round tie against Accrington Stanley, in which he scored a penalty in the shootout, won 6–5 by Watford.
Parkes signed his first professional contract with Watford on the 1 February 2007. In March 2007, Parkes was called up to the England under-18 squad by manager Brian Eastick, making his debut in the 4–1 win against Holland. He has subsequently been called up by England under-19's.
In the 2007–08 season he was loaned to League Two sides Brentford and Barnet . He made his league debut for Watford on 30 August 2008 against Ipswich Town, replacing the injured Mat Sadler. In November of that year he captained Watford U20s away to Inter Milan, against a side that included Hernan Crespo, Adriano, Walter Samuel and Olivier Dacourt.
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Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall ( /ˌlɔrən bəˈkɔːl/; born Betty Joan Perske, September 16, 1924) is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.
She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not (1944) and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in Bogart movies The Big Sleep (1946) and Dark Passage (1947), as well as a comedienne in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Designing Woman (1957) with Gregory Peck. Bacall has also worked on Broadway in musicals, gaining Tony Awards for Applause in 1970 and Woman of the Year in 1981. Her performance in the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.
In 1999, Bacall was ranked #20 of the 25 actresses on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list by the American Film Institute. In 2009, she was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Academy Honorary Award "in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion pictures."
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Les Ebdon
Leslie Colin Ebdon CBE DL (born 26 January 1947, Edmonton, London) is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire and Director of Office for Fair Access.
Ebdon attended Hemel Hempstead Grammar School (became The Hemel Hempstead School in 1970). Ebdon went on to obtain both his BSc in Chemistry in 1968 and PhD in 1971 at Imperial College London.
After lecturing at Makerere University, Kampala from 1971-3 and Sheffield City Polytechnic from 1973–80, he joined what is now the University of Plymouth in 1981 as a lecturer in Analytical Chemistry. In 1989 he was promoted to Head of Department of Environmental Sciences and eventually rose to Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Development).
Ebdon's research interests are in environmental analytical chemistry and his various contributions to our understanding of the behaviour and importance of trace elements in the environment have led to over 250 publications and to several awards.
Ebdon was appointed Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Luton in September 2003. With the merger of the University and the Bedford campus of De Montfort University in August 2006 he became the Vice Chancellor of the new University of Bedfordshire.
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Luke Donald
Luke Campbell Donald (born 7 December 1977) is an English professional golfer who is the current World Number One. He plays mainly on the U.S. based PGA Tour but is also a member of the European Tour. Donald had an outstanding year in 2011, winning several tournaments and awards. He won the PGA Tour money list and European Race to Dubai to complete a historic double. He is the only player to ever win both money lists on the PGA and European Tours in the same year. He was named the PGA Player of the Year and PGA Tour Player of the Year, becoming the first Englishman to win either award. He was also named the European Tour Golfer of the Year. He also became the first Englishman to win the PGA Tour's Vardon Trophy and the first golfer other than Tiger Woods to win the Mark H. McCormack Award for the most weeks at number one during a calendar year. In May 2012, Donald was awarded honorary life membership of the European Tour for his achievements in 2011.
In May 2011 Donald became the number one golfer in the Official World Golf Ranking after winning the BMW PGA Championship. He held the number one position for 40 weeks between May 2011 and March 2012 before being briefly dethroned on 4 March 2012 by Rory McIlroy. Two weeks later, Donald regained the number one ranking with his victory at the Transitions Championship on 18 March 2012. McIlroy regained the top ranking on 15 April 2012, only for Donald to claim the top ranking for a third spell on 29 April 2012. He lost the top spot again the following week after McIlroy's runner-up finish at the Wells Fargo Championship. Donald regained the world number one ranking with his victory at the BMW PGA Championship on 27 May 2012. He has spent over 100 weeks in the top-10.
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Lyn Harding
Lyn Harding (12 October 1867 – 26 December 1952) (real name David Llewellyn Harding) was a Welsh actor who spent 40 years on the stage before entering British made silent films, talkies and radio. He had an imposing and menacing stage presence and came to be cast as the villain in many films, notably Professor Moriarty in dramatisations of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
He was born in 1867 at St Brides Wentloog, in Monmouthshire, into a strict Congregationalist Welsh-speaking family.
He started his career as an apprentice draper in Newport, Wales and but he was drawn to an acting career . He began giving readings from Shakespeare at a chapel in Cardiff. In 1890 a chance meeting with a touring group on a train led to him standing in for a sick actor and his first professional engagement. He opened on 28 August 1890 in The Grip Of Iron at the Theatre Royal, Bristol.
He toured "the provinces" and eventually made his London debut at the Shakespeare Theatre, Clapham on 19 July 1897.
He later changed his name to "Lyn" to make it more acceptable to English audiences who found "Llewellyn" difficult to pronounce.
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Malcolm Phipps
Malcolm Phipps is an 8th Dan Hanshi in Shotokan Karate and is the Chief Instructor internationally to Seishinkai Shotokan Karate International (SSKI). He started training in karate in the early seventies with a local JKA club, then with Shotokan Karate International (SKI) with Hirokazu Kanazawa. He then moved on to the Amateur Shotokan Karate Association (ASKA), eventually leaving to form his own association, Seishinkai Shotokan Karate, in 1984 and finally turning international in 1995 to the group as it is today, SSKI, with clubs in England, the USA, Hungary, Kazakhstan and India. He is an advisory board member of the World Traditional Karate Organization. Phipps has trained in Shotokan Karate for nearly forty years and has taught for over 35 years.
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Marc Bircham
Marc Stephen John Bircham (born May 11, 1978 in Wembley) is an English-born Canadian international retired defensive midfield footballer, who currently works as Youth Manager at Queens Park Rangers F.C.
London-born Bircham started his professional career at Millwall and after 6 seasons joined Queens Park Rangers where he became a crowd favourite. Bircham used to be known for his unusual hairstyle – a dyed blue and white streak down the centre of his hair from when he played for QPR[citation needed] and a red and white streak while playing for Canada. QPR fans sang a song to the tune of I love you baby: "We love you Bircham because you got blue hair, we love you Bircham because you're everywhere, we love you Bircham because you're Rangers through and through"
In 2007 he moved to Yeovil Town. After a series of ankle injuries in the 2008–09 season it was revealed that Bircham had quit football and is going to set up a youth coaching camp in Cyprus.
Bircham was eligible to play for Canada because one of his grandfathers was born in Winnipeg. He made his debut for Canada in an April 1999 friendly match against Northern Ireland in Belfast. He is the only player to have played for a country without actually visiting it when his first cap – as well as his first and only goal – came.[citation needed] He scored that goal only 8 minutes after coming on as a substitute for another player making his debut, Davide Xausa.
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Michael Bradshaw
Michael Bradshaw (18 April 1933 – 13 December 2001) was an English actor.
Born in Plumstead, London, he grew up Boxmoor, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire to the north west of London. He trained as a printer for most of his teen years at John Dickinson Stationery Limited, except for two years mandatory service in the British armed forces ("national service") which he served in the Royal Air Force, stationed at RAF Ternhill near Market Drayton, Shropshire. During this time Bradshaw was working in non-professional theatre in his home town, having also been a talented boy soprano for his local church, St. John's, Boxmoor, even going on local tours.
Bradshaw left England for Canada in 1956 where he flourished in theatre working with the Players' Guild of Hamilton, Ontario and winning the Best Actor in the Dominion of Canada Award at the Dominion Drama Festival for his portrayal of Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons. He also performed in the Shaw Festival during its early years, most notably in the 1966 production of "Misalliance" in which he played the pilot, Joey Percival.
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Neil March
Neil March (born 16 July 1963) is a British composer.
He was born in Hemel Hempstead of Welsh and English parents. He studied music from a young age and played in various orchestras and ensembles before turning his back on the classical world in his late teens for the lure of the burgeoning Post-Punk scene.
During the 1980s and 90s he wrote for and performed with a number of bands and artists including MSQ whose song Modern World (co-written with long-time collaborator and friend Darren Hillier) was released to Europe-wide acclaim by Unicorn Records in 1989. MSQ later recorded for Bluebeat Records, a label owned by Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners. In 1997 he wrote and played on Acid Jazz band Junction 8's West Skyline EP and in 2000 he wrote and played on Feels so good, a UK Garage song by Anella Kissoon for Storm Records. His final release in the Pop world was his most successful, the debut album by Smooth Jazz artist Kevin East although he has subsequently been involved with retrospective releases of material from that period.
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Nicholas Breakspear
Pope Adrian IV (c. 1100 – 1 September 1159), born Nicholas Breakspear or Breakspeare, was Pope from 1154 to 1159.
Adrian IV has been the only Englishman so far to occupy the papal chair. It is generally believed that Nicholas Breakspear was born at Breakspear Farm in the parish of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire and received his early education at the Abbey School, St Albans (St Albans School).
His father was Robert, who later became a monk at St Albans. Nicholas himself, however, was refused admission to the monastery, being told by the abbot to "wait to go on with his schooling so that he might be considered more suitable" (Abbey chronicles). In the event, he did not wait and went instead to Paris and finally became a canon regular of the cloister of St. Rufus monastery near Arles. He rose to be prior and soon thereafter was unanimously elected abbot. This election has been traditionally dated to 1137, but evidence from the abbey's chronicles suggests it occurred about 1145.
His reforming zeal as abbot led to the lodging of complaints against him at Rome; but these merely attracted to him the favourable attention of Pope Eugene III, who created him Cardinal Bishop of Albano in December 1149.
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Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian actress, singer, film producer, and humanitarian. Kidman began her career in 1983, starring in various Australian film and television productions until her breakthrough in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Following several films over the early 1990s, she came to worldwide recognition for her performances in Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), and Batman Forever (1995). Kidman followed this with other successful films in the late 1990s. It was her performance in the musical, Moulin Rouge! (2001) which earned Kidman her second Golden Globe Award and first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her performance as Virginia Woolf the following year in the drama film The Hours (2002) received critical acclaim and earned Kidman the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Kidman's other notable films include To Die For (1995), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Cold Mountain (2003), The Interpreter (2005), and Australia (2008). Her performance in 2010's Rabbit Hole (which she also produced) earned Kidman further accolades including a subsequent Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Kidman has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. Kidman's work has earned her a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, three Golden Globe Awards, one BAFTA, and an Academy Award. In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civilian honor, and was also the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry. As a result of being born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship in Australia and the United States.
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OFFA
The Office for Fair Access is a non-departmental public body responsible for ensuring that any university or higher education institution in England which plans to charge variable tuition fees starting with the academic year 2006/7 has in place an acceptable plan to promote equitable access among its undergraduate applicants and those considering applying. The first Director, appointed in 2004, is Sir Martin Harris. It was confirmed on 20 February 2012 that his successor is to be Les Ebdon.
The Higher Education Act 2004 introduced the concept of variable tuition fees for the first time. Whilst some parts of the United Kingdom, most notably Scotland, did not implement top-up fees, most universities and higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United Kingdom are in England and will thus be under the new regime.
This new regime allows HEIs to charge tuition fees of any amount from £0 to £3,000. (These caps were raised in 2010.) At the time this policy was being debated there was considerable concern that the amount of debt new graduates would be faced with could dissuade some potential students from entering higher education altogether. Thus, as part of the debate, the Government of the United Kingdom decided to institute a body to oversee the introduction of fees to the extent of ensuring that such dissuasion did not occur. The Act established the Office for Fair Access and gave OFFA the power to prevent a HEI charging fees above £1,200 if it could not satisfy the regulator that it would make adequate provision for widening access and encouraging participation.
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Offa of Essex
Offa was King of Essex until 709, when he abdicated in order that he may take up life in a monastery in Rome along with Cenred, King of Mercia. He was the son of Sigeheard of Essex, and, according to some sources, St. Osyth, (though Bede, a contemporary, makes no mention of her).[citation needed]
In his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Bede described him as "a youth of most lovely age and beauty, and most earnestly desired by all his nation to be their king. He, with like devotion, quit his wife, lands, kindred and country, for Christ and for the Gospel, that he might receive an hundredfold in this life, and in the world to Come life everlasting. He also, when they came to the holy places at Rome, receiving the tonsure, and adopting a monastic life, attained the long wished-for sight of the blessed apostles in heaven."
A charter related to land in Warwickshire (S64) is attributed to him, although in it he is described as King of Mercia rather than Essex. This may be an inaccurate copy based on an authentic charter by Cenred of Mercia. There is a (probably authentic) lost charter (S1784) in which Offa grants land in Hemel Hempstead to the bishop of London.[citation needed]
wn.com/Offa_of_Essex -
Oliver Low
Oliver J. Low (born 23 July 1970 in Hemel Hempstead) is an English poet, theologian, composer, role-playing-game designer and writer.
Educated at University of Warwick and the College of Law, member of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, and the British Computer Society.
Founding member of the UK based open source software company Viridian Sun. Founding member of the science fiction and fantasy publisher, Writers of Worlds.
wn.com/Oliver_Low -
Paul Boateng
Paul Yaw Boateng, Baron Boateng (born 14 June 1951) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent South from 1987 to 2005, becoming the UK's first black Cabinet Minister in May 2002, when he was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Following his departure from the House of Commons, he served as the British High Commissioner to South Africa from March 2005 to May 2009. He was introduced as a member of the House of Lords on 1 July 2010.
Boateng was born in Hackney, London of mixed Ghanaian and Scottish heritage; his family later moved to Ghana when Boateng was four years old. His father, Kwaku Boateng, was a lawyer and cabinet minister under Kwame Nkrumah. There, Boateng attended Accra Academy High School. Boateng's life in Ghana came to an abrupt end with the jailing of his father in 1966 after a coup against Nkrumah. His father was imprisoned without trial for four years. Boateng, then 15, and his sister fled to Britain with their mother.
They settled in Hemel Hempstead where he attended Apsley Grammar School. He read law at the University of Bristol and began his career in civil rights, originally as a solicitor, though he later retrained as a barrister. He worked primarily on social and community cases, involving women's rights, housing and police complaints, including a period from 1977-1981 as the legal advisor for the Scrap Sus Campaign. He represented Cherry Groce, a mother of six who was shot and paralysed by a police officer during a raid on her home in the search for her son. He became a partner at the firm B M Birnberg & Co, and as a barrister, he practiced at Eight King's Bench Walk.
wn.com/Paul_Boateng -
Robert Snooks
Robert Snooks (about 1761-1802) was the last man to be executed in England for highway robbery, on 11 March 1802.
Born in Hungerford in Berkshire, he was christened as James Blackman Snook on 16 August 1761. The fact that his name is commonly quoted as Robert Snooks is perhaps due to a corruption of his identity as the “Robber” Snook.
Post Boy John Stevens was travelling from Tring to Hemel Hempstead late one Sunday evening in May 1801. On reaching an isolated part of Boxmoor, he was threatened by a highwayman who subsequently stole £80 from the mail.
A reward of £200 was offered by the Postmaster General in addition to the £100 offered by Parliament for the apprehending of highwaymen. The London Chronicle reported on the 11th March 1802 that the highwayman had left a broken saddle at the scene of the crime and this mistake later identified Snook as the culprit. Although the Post Boy couldn’t identify Snook due to the darkness at the time of the robbery, one of the stolen bank notes was traced back to Snook’s possession and a chain of circumstantial evidence led to a guilty verdict at his trial in March 1802.
wn.com/Robert_Snooks -
Salem Hanna Khamis
Salem Hanna Khamis (November 22, 1919 – June 16, 2005) was a Palestinian economic statistician for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization who helped formalise the Geary-Khamis method of computing purchasing power parity of currencies.
Son of Hanna and Jamileh, Salem Khamis was born on November 22, 1919, in Reineh village, in British controlled Palestine. He finished high school in 1938 with distinction at the Arab College in Jerusalem. He received a British Mandate scholarship for studying at the American University of Beirut (AUB), where he received in 1941 a BA degree in Mathematics (major) and Physics (minor), and in 1942 an MA in Physics.
From 1942-1943, Salem taught at the Akka High School in Acre and St Lucas High School in Haifa. In 1943 he was appointed a lecturer in the Mathematics Department at AUB. In 1945 he received a British Council scholarship for a PhD at University College London. He defended his thesis during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and Palestinian exodus (Nakba), and received the PhD title in 1950.
wn.com/Salem_Hanna_Khamis -
Steven Wilson
Steven John Wilson (born 3 November 1967) is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. He is involved in many other bands and musical projects both as musician and producer (including No-Man and Blackfield) and also maintains a solo career.
Wilson is a self-taught producer, audio engineer, guitar and keyboard player, playing other instruments as and where required (including bass guitar, concert harp, hammered dulcimer and flute).
He used to split his living time between Tel Aviv and London, England, but he no longer holds a permanent residence in Tel Aviv.
Born in Kingston upon Thames, London, England (but brought up in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England from the age of 6)[citation needed], Wilson discovered his love for music around the age of 8. It began one Christmas when his parents bought presents for each other in the form of LPs. His father and mother received Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and Donna Summer's Love to Love You Baby, respectively. The young Steven spent much of his childhood listening to these albums in "heavy rotation", as he once commented.
wn.com/Steven_Wilson -
Terry-Thomas
Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens (14 July 1911 – 8 January 1990) was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads, toffs and bounders, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket and catch-phrases such as "What an absolute shower!", "Good show!", "You dirty rotter" and "Hard cheese".
He was born Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens at 53, Princes Avenue, N3, Finchley, North London, England, the son of Ellen Elizabeth Stevens (née Hoar) and Ernest Frederick Stevens, a business executive. He was educated at Ardingly College. He began his working life as a clerk with Union Cold Storage Company, before drifting into show business. Terry-Thomas worked in cabaret and as a film extra before finding success as an entertainer during World War II. After the war, he worked in TV, radio and variety, but it was during the mid-1950s that he developed his famous persona, first in his television series, How Do You View?, and then in films. His performance as Major Hitchcock in the Boulting brothers' Private's Progress (1956) gave birth to his catchphrase, "you're an absolute shower", and made him a favourite in British comedy films for the next decade. He reprised the role of Hitchcock in I'm All Right Jack (1959), and appeared in several of the Boultings' other films, including Lucky Jim and Brothers in Law.
wn.com/Terry-Thomas -
Theo Walcott
Theo James Walcott (born 16 March 1989) is an English footballer of Jamaican descent who plays for Arsenal and the England national team. Walcott is a product of the Southampton F.C. Academy. He is a striker who is usually deployed on the right wing as a wide forward to exploit his speed. Walcott won the prestigious BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Award in 2006.
He was the subject of worldwide media attention, following his shock inclusion to the 2006 English World Cup squad.
On 30 May 2006, Walcott became England's youngest ever senior football player with an age of 17 years and 75 days. On 6 September 2008, he made his first competitive start in a World Cup qualifier against Andorra, and in the following match against Croatia on 10 September he opened his senior international goals tally and became the youngest player in history to score a hat-trick for England.
Walcott is well known for his blistering pace, with Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola declaring that “you would need a pistol to stop him.” He has been likened by Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger to Walcott's teammate, Thierry Henry.FIFA World Player of the Year winner Lionel Messi has described Walcott as "one of the most dangerous players I have ever played against."
wn.com/Theo_Walcott -
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket (also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London, and later Thomas à Becket;circa 1118 – 29 December 1170) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He engaged in conflict with Henry II of England over the rights and privileges of the Church and was murdered by followers of the king in Canterbury Cathedral. Soon after his death, he was canonized by Pope Alexander III.
The main sources for the life of Becket are a number of biographies that were written by contemporaries. A few of these documents are by unknown writers, although traditional historiography has given them names. The known biographers are John of Salisbury, Edward Grim, Benedict of Peterborough, William of Canterbury, William fitz Stephen, Guernes of Pont-Sainte-Maxence, Robert of Cricklade, Alan of Tewkesbury, Benet of St Albans, and Herbert of Bosham. The other biographers, who remain anonymous, are generally given the pseudonyms of Anonymous I, Anonymous II (or Anonymous of Lambeth), and Anonymous III (or Lansdowne Anonymous). Besides these accounts, there are also two other accounts that are likely contemporary that appear in the Quadrilogus II and the Thomas Saga Erkibyskups. Besides these biographies, there is also the mention of the events of Becket's life in the chroniclers of the time. These include Robert of Torigni's work, Roger of Howden's Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi and Chronica, Ralph Diceto's works, William of Newburgh's Historia Rerum, and Gervase of Canterbury's works.
wn.com/Thomas_Becket -
Tommy W. Smith
Thomas William "Tommy" Smith (born 22 May 1980 in Hemel Hempstead) is an English footballer who currently plays for Premier League club Queen Park Rangers. He is normally used as a right winger or a striker.
Smith started his career at Watford, where his younger brother Jack was also a trainee. He played a part in Watford's consecutive promotions from the Second Division, reaching the Premier League in 1999. Although Watford were relegated in 2000, Smith represented his country at under-21 level the following season. He left Watford to join Sunderland on a free transfer in 2003, before moving to Derby County in 2004. He was voted Derby Player of the year in 2006, before re-joining Watford. After the club's relegation in his first season back at Vicarage Road, Smith's subsequent performances earned him consecutive Watford Player of the Season awards in 2007–08 and 2008–09. At the start of the following season he was sold to Premier League club Portsmouth. The club faced administration that season, and were eventually relegated. The following season, Smith joined Championship club Queens Park Rangers, becoming a regular in a team challenging for promotion to the Premier League.
wn.com/Tommy_W._Smith -
Tony McWalter
Tony McWalter (born 20 March 1945 in Worksop) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He was Labour Party and Co-operative Member of Parliament for Hemel Hempstead between 1997 and 2005.
He went to the independent catholic St Benedict's School in Ealing. At the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, he gained a BSc in Pure Maths in 1967, and a BSc in Philosophy in 1968. At McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, he gained an MA in Philosophy in 1968. At University College, Oxford, he gained a BPhil in Philosophy in 1971 and he was offered the degree of MLitt in 1983.
From 1963-4, he was a teacher at the catholic Cardinal Wiseman secondary school in Greenford, west London. From 1964-7, he was periodically a lorry driver for EH Paterson Ltd. From 1968-9, he was a teaching fellow at McMaster University.
He is a former philosophy lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, beginning when it was known as Hatfield Polytechnic in 1974. He also lectured at Thames Polytechnic (now called the University of Greenwich) from 1972-4. In the late 1980s he was Director of Computing at the university's education campus at Wall Hall.
wn.com/Tony_McWalter -
Vinnie Jones
Vincent Peter "Vinnie" Jones (born 5 January 1965) is an English actor and retired footballer.
Born in Hertfordshire, England, Jones represented and captained the Welsh national football team, having qualified via a Welsh grandparent. As a member of the "Crazy Gang", Jones won the 1988 FA Cup Final with Wimbledon, a club for which he played well over 200 games during two spells between 1986 and 1998. He also previously played for Chelsea and Leeds United. Jones appeared in Celebrity Big Brother 2010, where he finished in third place behind Dane Bowers and Alex Reid.
He has capitalised on his tough man image as a footballer and is known as an actor for his aggressive style and intimidating demeanour, often being typecast into roles as coaches, hooligans and violent criminals.
Jones was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, to Peter Jones (a gamekeeper) and Glenda Harris Jones.
Jones started his football career in 1984 at Alliance Premier League side Wealdstone, during which time he combined playing football with being a hod carrier. He played one season with second-level Swedish club IFK Holmsund in 1986 and helped them win the league.
wn.com/Vinnie_Jones -
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Vitantonio "Tonio" Liuzzi (born 6 August 1981) is an Italian race driver who formerly raced in Formula One for the Red Bull, HRT, Force India and Toro Rosso teams. He has homes in Lugano, Switzerland and Pescara, Italy.
Born in Locorotondo, BA, Apulia, Liuzzi, like many auto racing drivers, began his career in kart racing (at age 9). He won the 1993 Italian Karting Championship, and in 1995 took second in the Karting World Championship and placed fifth in the European Championship. He won the Karting World Championship in 2001. He beat Formula One champion Michael Schumacher at Kerpen, Schumacher's 'home' track.
Liuzzi then moved to cars, finishing second in the 2001 German Formula Renault Championship. Racing in the German Formula Three Championship, however, he scored only ninth place. That same year he did win the San Marino International F3 race and had test drives for the Coloni Formula 3000 team and Williams, the Formula One constructor. Red Bull hired Liuzzi for the 2003 F3000 season, in which he finished fourth. He moved to the Arden team for the following F3000 season, where he won seven of the ten races, securing the title with one race left.
wn.com/Vitantonio_Liuzzi
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The pubs of Hemel Hempstead
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:34
- Updated: 30 Oct 2012
http://wn.com/The_pubs_of_Hemel_Hempstead
The Moor End Road Legend! - Hemel Hempstead
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:55
- Updated: 10 Oct 2012
I decided to interview a guy that stands at the side of the road with a sign warning people not to use the bus lane as it has cameras and you get fined £60. Who has seen this guy in action?! ***UPDATE 23/4/2012*** www.bbc.co.uk
http://wn.com/The_Moor_End_Road_Legend!_Hemel_Hempstead
A walk around the East of Hemel Hempstead - Redux
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 58:59
- Updated: 22 Jun 2012
Which is precisely what it says on the tin, whatever that means. See our marvellous industrial estate, Grove Hill, Highfield and Adeyfield as well as Leverstock Green, a place so posh it sets your accent back three hundred years. This version has has part of the sound track of the original version replaced following a copyright claim by WMG. Although that copyright claim affected only 2 minutes of this hour long programme, containing numerous original observations about life in contemporary Britain and the history of the region being treated, it was considered sufficient to blank out all the other 58 minutes of audio also. The available option of audioswapping (which I do use on occasion) was not suitable as I would have lost the speechlines here, and there is also no available audioswap for a film lasting nearly an hour. Thankfully I was able to re-edit the saved copy of the first film - it's not seamless, but it's better than the alternative, and I can keep the series whole. The use of a handful of Telegraph frames I believe is fair use, as no account of Hemel Hempstead would be complete without a few words on the Buncefield explosion - the largest explosion in peace time Europe. I am happy to acknowledge the Telegraph website as the source of these images. I endorse it as the best UK newspaper site and look at it nearly every day.
http://wn.com/A_walk_around_the_East_of_Hemel_Hempstead_Redux
More of the Miserable Art of Hemel Hempstead
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 13:48
- Updated: 30 Oct 2012
A continuation of last time's re-examination of the subjects of the YouTube film "The Miserable Public Art of Hemel Hempstead".
http://wn.com/More_of_the_Miserable_Art_of_Hemel_Hempstead
Miserable Public Art of 1980's Hemel Hempstead
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:53
- Updated: 07 Oct 2012
The Miserable Art of Hemel Hempstead
http://wn.com/Miserable_Public_Art_of_1980's_Hemel_Hempstead
THE GEORGE NASH MILLS HEMEL HEMPSTEAD TV AM 1980's
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:01
- Updated: 02 May 2012
THE GEORGE NASH MILLS HEMEL HEMPSTEAD. This Video is dedecated to, The Late Great, Barry John Reynolds, BJ. TV AM in the 1980's came to, The George in Nash Mills Hemel Hempstead and filmed, BJ as part of worst landlord series and GONZO cuts off presenters tie put on utube by DJ Superb!! Hello if you were there regards Ernie ! Trevor.agate@ashridge,org,uk Would you like to shear a story from the George in the 80s, tell me and I will put it on the listing. Regards Trev dj.trev@ntlworld.com or trevor.agate@ashridge.org.uk
http://wn.com/THE_GEORGE_NASH_MILLS_HEMEL_HEMPSTEAD_TV_AM_1980's
Hemel Hempstead Olympic torch relay
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 46:43
- Updated: 21 Aug 2012
Relay coverage from the top of St Albans Hill to Marlowes. I don't think I've ever seen Hemel so busy, despite Andy Murray in the Wimbledon men's final. Makes me miss the place. Signal cut out for a while. Starts with the following people (info from BBC website): 1718: A team from one of the sponsors is up next. Richard Brasher, Sharon De Silva, Gareth Baker, Jeffrey Searle, Lesley Birchall, Mark James, Mandy Jinkerson, Patrick Killian, Catherine Woolfrey and Amanda Thurland are taking the torch as a team of dedicated fundraisers. 1736: Tamsin Addison passes the flame to Kerensa Kennard as the rain falls in Hemel and an array of multi-coloured umbrellas go up in the crowd. 1740: This is Aidan Pimm who is head of cricket at Boxmoor Cricket Club in Hertfordshire and also manages the under nine and under 12 teams. 1743: Running in the rain now is Katherine Deal who is a former member of the UK Athletics GB Squad despite having a severe visual impairment. The 20-year-old had to pull out of the team because of illness but went on to gain a place at University College London to study philopsopy. 1750: A happy-looking Fiona Devine, from Windsor, now sets off with the flame and is described as a "key figure" behind the Alexander Devine Children's Hospice, a charity which provides nursing care and a hospice for children in Berkshire who do not have long to live. The charity has raised more than £1.2m. We lose sight of her briefly as she runs into a place which torchcam cannot ...
http://wn.com/Hemel_Hempstead_Olympic_torch_relay
Hemel Hempstead Snow Decemeber 2009
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:36
- Updated: 27 Apr 2011
Hemel Hempstead snow Decemeber 2009! journey from Jarman park down towards the magic roundabout to Lawn Lane
http://wn.com/Hemel_Hempstead_Snow_Decemeber_2009
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD CARNIVAL 1966 CINE FILM 8mm
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:15
- Updated: 16 Feb 2012
A standard 8mm cine film taken in August 1966 of Hemel Hempstead carnival & Miss Hemel Hempstead contest. The floats I believe started in St John's Rd into Station Rd and then into The Marlowes many years before the pedestrianisation. Some great colour footage with some still existing buildings including the then free multi-storey car park now NCP.The carnival then proceeds onto Gadebridge Park for other events & the Miss Hemel Hempstead event.
http://wn.com/HEMEL_HEMPSTEAD_CARNIVAL_1966_CINE_FILM_8mm
Luke Schoonbrood @ the XC Hemel Hempstead
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:07
- Updated: 09 Oct 2012
Just a little update of a typical session of 8 year old Luke riding his local indoor pool and bowl. Many thanks to www.littleandgnarly.com for their continued support Nick @ Death Skateboards for a great product Tom, Toby and the staff at XC. Harry Phelps for the video'ing in the bowl ( www.youtube.com ) Camera: Panasonic TM300 with wide angle lens and opteka 0.3 baby death.
http://wn.com/Luke_Schoonbrood_@_the_XC_Hemel_Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead Snow Centre
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:24
- Updated: 09 Oct 2011
Created on May 13, 2009 using FlipShare.
http://wn.com/Hemel_Hempstead_Snow_Centre
Olympic Torch Relay - Man Arrested After Incident In Hemel Hempstead
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:21
- Updated: 18 Oct 2012
A man has been arrested following an incident as the Olympic torch was carried through Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. Hertfordshire Constabulary told the BBC that the arrest was made after the individual "tried to enter the security bubble around the Olympic flame". The relay continued uninterrupted following the incident. If you like this video please subscribe to my channel to see more videos like this. Also when you click 'Like' please share on Twitter and Facebook. Thanks
http://wn.com/Olympic_Torch_Relay_Man_Arrested_After_Incident_In_Hemel_Hempstead
Weymouth 2 v 2 Hemel Hempstead Town, Zamaretto Premier
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:31
- Updated: 09 Mar 2012
Taking the lead with a dubious penalty, honours were shared at the Bob Lucas Stadium as the Terras' drew 2-2 with Hemel Hempstead Town.
http://wn.com/Weymouth_2_v_2_Hemel_Hempstead_Town,_Zamaretto_Premier
hemel hempstead
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:50
- Updated: 03 Feb 2012
a flick round hemel
http://wn.com/hemel_hempstead
The Plough Roundabout - Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, England
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:08
- Updated: 07 Jan 2012
it consists of one large roundabout, surrounded by six mini-roundabouts - one for each of the six original junctions. And how does that work, you might ask? Basically, each mini-roundabout is treated just like a normal roundabout, with the main roundabout acting as a sort of distraction. But the really distinguishing motif of this grand cosmic wheel of traffic is that you are perfectly entitled to turn right at any of the mini-roundabouts as well as turn left. This means you can quite easily find yourself driving anti-clockwise around the main roundabout. And let's not forget, clockwise and clockwise only is the rule of thumb for all other British roundabouts. As you might well imagine, this causes a lot of confusion.
http://wn.com/The_Plough_Roundabout_Hemel_Hempstead,_in_Hertfordshire,_England
Herts Baseball in Hemel Hempstead town centre
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:52
- Updated: 20 Aug 2012
Herts Baseball in Hemel Hempstead town centre
http://wn.com/Herts_Baseball_in_Hemel_Hempstead_town_centre
Save Hemel Hempstead Hospital Ad
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:17
- Updated: 01 May 2012
Save Hemel Hospital Hemel Hospital is under threat from closure. This is our chance to make a difference and get our voice heard by an NHS hospital trust that is un-democratically acting without a fair consultation. The following towns are affected, whether due to their services closing, or being in the Hemel Hempstead Hospital catchment area: Berkhamstead, Tring, Abbots Langley, Kings Langley, St Albans, Berkhamsted, Bovingdon, Chipperfield, Chesham, Tring. Also in close proximity are the towns of Hatfield, Amersham, Aylesbury. Remember Buncefield? Just imagine what could have happened if it had struck in the week with the M1 closed and no hospital? Imagine what could happen if another unseen disaster occurred in the area. Services are planned to move to Watford, or worse - with the possible closure of Watford General Hospital, a super-hospital somewhere between Hemel and Norfolk! This would mean a catchment area population of nearly 500000 people without critical Accident and Emergency (A&E;) services
http://wn.com/Save_Hemel_Hempstead_Hospital_Ad
View from Hemel Hempstead's tallest building
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:50
- Updated: 30 May 2012
The view from the top of the former Kodak tower in Hemel Hempstead.
http://wn.com/View_from_Hemel_Hempstead's_tallest_building
Alex Hallford | XC Skatepark | Hemel Hempstead
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:19
- Updated: 16 Oct 2012
Alex Hallford and Nicholas Hanson at the XC skatepark in Hemel Hempstead.
http://wn.com/Alex_Hallford_|_XC_Skatepark_|_Hemel_Hempstead
XC Hemel Hempstead Preview Session (New Indoor Skate Park)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:24
- Updated: 30 Aug 2012
Terra Skateboards owner Griff snagged himself an early session in Hemel Hempstead's New Indoor skate park. but does all go to plan?.....its griff so of course not haha Skate Park Opens July 23rd Rushed Filming n Sloppy Editing by Ill-Advised Films
http://wn.com/XC_Hemel_Hempstead_Preview_Session_New_Indoor_Skate_Park
NIKE THE CHOSEN SERIES - HEMEL HEMPSTEAD
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:21
- Updated: 03 Nov 2012
my video of nikes the chosen series .... first stop at hemel hempstead :D
http://wn.com/NIKE_THE_CHOSEN_SERIES_HEMEL_HEMPSTEAD
Hemel Hempstead School A-level results
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:45
- Updated: 29 Mar 2012
See students at Hemel Hempstead School celebrating their A-level results.
http://wn.com/Hemel_Hempstead_School_A-level_results
18 09 12 Hemel Hempstead Away Post Match Reaction
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 15:20
- Updated: 28 Sep 2012
http://wn.com/18_09_12_Hemel_Hempstead_Away_Post_Match_Reaction
Photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
20 Nov 2012
Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling President Barack Obama's whirlwind tour of southeast Asia and meetings with dignitaries will have to walk a tightrope between either appearing to endorse...
Photo: AP / Sebastian D'souza
21 Nov 2012
MUMBAI, India - India executed the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 terror attack on Mumbai early Wednesday, India's home ministry said. Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, was one of 10 gunmen who...
Photo: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
19 Nov 2012
Yangon, November 19: Newly re-elected US President Barack Obama arrived here Monday to kick off his visit to Myanmar, becoming the first sitting US president to visit the Southeast Asian nation. As...
Photo: AP / Hatem Moussa
19 Nov 2012
Gaza/Jerusalem - Israel bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that...
Photo: UN / Logan Abassi
21 Nov 2012
A report by the UN says global attempts to curb emissions of CO2 are falling well short of what is needed to stem dangerous climate change. The UN's Environment Programme says greenhouse gases are 14%...
New York Daily News
The Manhattan Jaspers had plenty to be thankful for before they even tipped off Wednesday in their home opener against Hofstra. The first batch of good news came when a trio of recruits, including highly-touted wing Chris Thomas out of Denver, delivered their signed National Letters of Intent to the...(size: 5.8Kb)
IDs released in fatal Bellmore collision
22 Nov 2012
Newsday
Nassau police identified Wednesday the two people killed in a Bellmore traffic collision between a Mack truck and a passenger vehicle this week. Cipriano Perez, 47, of North Bellmore, was the driver of the 2002 Hyundai Accent, and Telvina Zavala, 28, of Hempstead, was the front seat passenger in the...(size: 7.5Kb)
Hempstead's Theron 'Teddy' Banks Sr. dies
22 Nov 2012
Newsday
Theron "Teddy" Banks Sr. of Hempstead, a former Nassau County social worker, Hempstead High School attendance officer and a Korean War veteran, died Tuesday of pneumonia at Nassau University Medical Center. He was 84. Banks, who grew up in Hempstead, was a sports enthusiast who in 1946 was the first...(size: 6.5Kb)
North Hempstead passes tax cap-busting budget
21 Nov 2012
Newsday
A divided North Hempstead town board has approved a budget that pierces the state-imposed tax cap for the second year in a row. The board voted 4-3 Tuesday to approve the budget for 2013 of $123,029,977, an increase of 4.8 percent over the current year's budget of $117,365,130. The tax levy is...(size: 7.9Kb)
Yahoo Daily News
If you're one of the over 20.6 million Americans who has a Twitter account, chances are you've stumbled across the official SoccerGirlProblems Twitter handle, @SoccerGrlProbs, at least once while using the popular social media networking site. SoccerGirlProblems, a feed spawned by three New...(size: 9.7Kb)
Forgery arrest after car stop in Valley Stream
21 Nov 2012
The Examiner
Related topics Valley stream Advertisement A Queens man was arrested Wednesday on felony charges after being stopped for driving on the sidewalk along Sunrise Highway in Valley Stream, Nassau County police said. Oluwayemi Famojuro, 21, of Far Rockaway, Queens, was driving a 2006 Infinity G35, when...(size: 6.4Kb)
Tony D'Urso builds a new life for others
21 Nov 2012
The Examiner
Related topics America Inspired - Sacrifice Advertisement Editor’s note: This article was a winner in the Sacrifice category of the America Inspired Contest, which celebrated extraordinary people making a difference across the United States. We invite you to read about these amazing people. There is...(size: 29.3Kb)
East still battling rubble from Sandy
21 Nov 2012
Detroit news
By David B. Caruso Associated Press Comments New York â Just a few months ago, the parking lot at Jacob Riis Park on New York City's Rockaway seashore was filled with happy beachgoers. Now it is home to a mountain of misery from Superstorm Sandy â a growing pile of trash containing everything...(size: 9.6Kb)
Towns scramble to act on budgets
21 Nov 2012
Newsday
Amid potentially conflicting pressures to adhere to a state tax cap and clean up debris left from superstorm Sandy, a half-dozen towns scrambled Tuesday to beat the deadline for passing their 2013 budgets. , Southampton and approved their spending packages hours before the state's midnight deadline....(size: 10.3Kb)
Rubble cleanup a massive task in NY, NJ
21 Nov 2012
The Guardian
DAVID B. CARUSO Associated Press= NEW YORK (AP) — Just a few months ago, the parking lot at Jacob Riis Park on New York City's Rockaway seashore was filled with happy beachgoers. Now, it is home to a mountain of misery from Superstorm Sandy — a growing pile of garbage containing everything from...(size: 12.3Kb)
Hurricane's Impact On Trees, And How Homeowners Can Prevent Sandy-Like Devastation Next Time
20 Nov 2012
Huffington Post
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Class 2A HS football playoff pairings
20 Nov 2012
Austin American Statesman
CLASS 2A DIVISION I Region I Area Littlefield (8-2) vs. Merkel (8-3), 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Midland's Grande Stadium Wall (9-1) vs. Bushland (5-6), 6 p.m. Saturday, Snyder Eastland (8-2) vs. Muleshoe (9-2), 7 p.m. Friday, Snyder Idalou (8-2) vs. Bangs (8-3), 7 p.m. Friday, Sweetwater Region II Area...(size: 2.5Kb)
The Washington Post
NEW YORK — Just a few months ago, the parking lot at Jacob Riis Park on New York City’s Rockaway seashore was filled with happy beachgoers. Now, it is home to a mountain of misery from Superstorm Sandy — a growing pile of garbage containing everything from mangled appliances,...(size: 5.0Kb)
Coordinates: 51°45′09″N 0°28′09″W / 51.7526°N 0.4692°W / 51.7526; -0.4692
| Hemel Hempstead | |
| 240px Hemel Hempstead Old Town |
|
 Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead shown within Hertfordshire |
|
| Population | 81,143 |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | TL 056 071 |
| District | Dacorum |
| Shire county | Hertfordshire |
| Region | East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | HEMEL HEMPSTEAD |
| Postcode district | HP1, HP2, HP3 |
| Dialling code | 01442 |
| Police | Hertfordshire |
| Fire | Hertfordshire |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
| UK Parliament | Hemel Hempstead |
| List of places: UK • England • Hertfordshire | |
Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, 24 miles (38.6 km) to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 (but now estimated at around 89,000 by Hertfordshire County Council).
Developed after World War II as a new town, it has existed as a settlement since the 8th century and was granted its town charter by King Henry VIII in 1539. It is part of the district (and borough since 1984) of Dacorum and the Hemel Hempstead constituency.
History[link]
Origin of the name[link]
The settlement was called by the name Henamsted or Hean-Hempsted, i.e. High Hempstead, in Anglo-Saxon times and in William the Conqueror's time by the name of Hemel-Amstede.[1] The name is referred to in the Domesday Book as "Hamelamesede", but in later centuries it became Hamelhamsted. In Old English, "-stead" or "-stede" simply meant a place, such as the site of a building or pasture, as in clearing in the woods, and this suffix is used in the names of other English places such as Hamstead and Berkhamsted.[2]
Another opinion is that Hemel probably came from "Haemele" which was the name of the district in the 8th century and is most likely either the name of the land owner, or could mean "broken country".[3][4]
The town is now known to residents as "Hemel" however before The Second World War locals called it "Hempstead".
The town has given its name to the town of Hempstead, New York. Immigrants from Hemel Hempstead migrated to the area which is now Hempstead, New York, including the surrounding areas such as Roosevelt, in the late 17th century.[5]
Early history[link]
Remains of Roman villa farming settlements have been found at Boxmoor and Gadebridge which span the entire period of Roman Britain.
The first recorded mention of the town is the grant of land at Hamaele by Offa, King of Essex, to the Saxon Bishop of London in AD 705.
Hemel Hempstead on its present site is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a vill, Hamelhamstede, with about 100 inhabitants. The parish church of St Mary's was built in 1140, and is recognised as one of the finest Norman parish churches in the county. The church features an unusual 200 feet (61 m) tall spire, added in the 12th century, one of Europe's tallest.
After the Norman conquest the land thereabouts was given to Robert, Count of Mortain, the elder half-brother of William the Conqueror, as part of the lands associated with Berkhamsted Castle. The estates passed through many hands over the next few centuries including Thomas Becket in 1162. In 1290 King John of England's grandson, the Earl of Cornwall, gave the manor to the religious order of the Bonhommes when he endowed the monastery at Ashridge. The town remained part of the monastery's estates until the Reformation and break-up of Ashridge in 1539.
In that same year, the town was granted a Royal charter by King Henry VIII to become a Bailiwick with the right to hold a Thursday market and a fair on Corpus Christi Day. The first Bailiff of Hemel Hempstead was William Stephyns (29 December 1539). The King and Anne Boleyn are reputed to have stayed in the town at this time.[6]
Unusually fine medieval wall paintings from the period between 1470 and 1500 were discovered in some cottages in Piccotts End, very close to Hemel Hempstead in 1953. This same building had been converted into the first cottage hospital providing free medical services by Sir Astley Cooper in 1827.[7]
In 1581, a group of local people acquired lands — now referred to as Box Moor — from the Earl of Leicester to prevent their enclosure. These were transferred to trustees in 1594. These have been used for public grazing and they are administered by the Box Moor Trust.
Hemel's position on the shortest route between London and the industrial Midlands put it on the Sparrows Herne turnpike Toll road in 1762, the Grand Junction Canal in 1795 and the London and Birmingham Railway in 1837.[8] However it remained principally an agricultural market town throughout the 19th century. In the last decades of that century development of houses and villas for London commuters began. The Midland Railway built a branch line connecting to its mainline at Harpenden in 1877 (see The Nicky Line). Hemel steadily expanded, but only became a borough on 13 July 1898. During World War II 90 high explosive bombs dropped on the town by the Luftwaffe. The most notorius incident was on 10 May 1942 when a stick of bombs demolished houses at Nash Mills killing 8 people. The nearby Dickinson factories which were used to produce munitions, were the target.[9]
New town[link]
After World War II, in 1946, the government designated Hemel Hempstead as the site of one of its proposed New Towns designed to house the population displaced by the London Blitz, since slums and bombsites were being cleared in London. On 4 February 1947, the Government purchased 5,910 acres (23.9 km2) of land and began work on the "New Town". The first new residents moved in during April 1949, and the town continued its planned expansion through to the end of the 1980s. Hemel grew to its present population of 80,000, with new developments enveloping the original town on all sides. The original part of Hemel is still known as the "Old Town".
Hemel Hempstead was announced as candidate No 3 for a New Town in July 1946, in accordance with the government's "policy for the decentralisation of persons and industry from London". Initially there was much resistance and hostility to the plan from locals, especially when it was revealed that any development would be carried out not by the local council but by a newly appointed government body, the Hemel Hempstead Development Corporation (later amalgamated with similar bodies to form the Commission for New Towns). However, following a public inquiry the following year, the town got the go-ahead. Hemel officially became a New Town on 4 February 1947.
The initial plans for the New Town were drawn up by architect G. A. Jellicoe. His view of Hemel Hempstead, he said, was “not a city in a garden, but a city in a park.” However, the plans were not well-received by most locals. Revised, and less radical plans were drawn up, and the first developments proceeded despite local protests in July 1948. The first area to be developed was Adeyfield. At this time the plans for a double "magic" roundabout at Moor End were first put forward, but in fact it was not until 1973 that the roundabout was opened as it was originally designed. The first houses erected as part of the New Town plan were in Longlands, Adeyfield, and went up in the spring of 1949. The first new residents moved in early 1950.
At this time, work started on building new factories and industrial areas, to avoid the town becoming a dormitory town. The first factory was erected in 1950 in Maylands Avenue. As building progressed with continuing local opposition, the town was becoming increasingly popular with those moving in from areas of north London. By the end of 1951, there was a waiting list of about 10,000 wishing to move to Hemel. The neighbourhoods of Bennett's End, Chaulden and Warner's End were started. The Queen paid a visit shortly after her accession in 1952, and laid a foundation stone for a new church in Adeyfield — one of her first public engagements as Queen. The shopping square she visited is named Queen's Square, and the nearby area has street names commemorating the then-recent conquest of Everest, such as Hilary and Tenzing Road. This conquest is also celebrated in the name of a pub in Warners End – the 'Top of the World'.
File:MG 3207.jpg
Riverside, extension to the Marlowes shopping precinct opened 2005
The redevelopment of the town centre was started in 1952, with a new centre based on Marlowes south of the old town. This was alongside a green area called the Water Gardens, designed by Jellico, formed by ponding back the River Gade. The old centre of the High Street was to remain largely undeveloped, though the market square closed and was replaced by a much larger one in the new centre. The former private estate of Gadebridge was opened up as a public park. New schools and roads were built to serve the expanding new neighbourhoods. New housing technology such as prefabrication started to be used from the mid-50s, and house building rates increased dramatically. Highfield was the next neighbourhood to be constructed. The M1 motorway opened to the east in 1959, and a new road connecting it to the town was opened.
By 1962, the redevelopment of the new town as originally envisaged was largely complete, though further expansion plans were then put forward. The nearby United States Air Force base of Bovingdon, which had served as the town's de facto airport, closed at this time, though private flying continued for a further seven years. A campus of West Herts College, the library, new Police station and the Pavilion (theatre and music venue) were all built during the 1960s. The town seemed to attract its fair share of celebrity openings, with shops and businesses opened by Frankie Vaughan, Benny Hill, Terry-Thomas, and the new cinema was opened by Hollywood star Lauren Bacall. The last of the originally-planned neighbourhoods, Grovehill, began construction in 1967. However, further neighbourhoods of Woodhall Farm and Fields End were later built as part of the extended plans.
Like other first generation new towns, Hemel is divided into residential neighbourhoods, each with their own "village centre" with shops, pubs and services. Each neighbourhood is designed around a few major feeder roads with many smaller cul-de-sacs and crescents, intended to minimise traffic and noise nuisance. In keeping with the optimism of the early postwar years, much of the town features modernist architecture with many unusual and experimental designs for housing. Not all of these have stood the test of time. A significant issue was how to choose names for all the new roads. Many areas of the new town used themes e.g. fields, birds, rivers, poets, explorers, leaders, etc.
In the 1970s, the government abolished the Borough of Hemel Hempstead and the town was incorporated into Dacorum District Council along with Tring and Berkhamsted. The first chairman of that council was Chairman John Johnson (1913–1977). In the 1980s, Dacorum District Council successfully lobbied to be recognised as the successor for the Royal Charter establishing the Borough of Hemel Hempstead and thus regained the Mayor and its Aldermen and became Dacorum Borough Council. The political atmosphere of the town has changed significantly. Once a Labour Party stronghold, the town has seen an increase in Conservative Party voting in recent years, and the current Member of Parliament, Mike Penning, is Conservative.
As of the 2001 census, Hemel Hempstead is the most populated urban area in Hertfordshire, narrowly more populated than its traditionally "larger" rival, Watford.
Buncefield explosion[link]
At 6am on 11 December 2005 one of the largest explosions ever to occur in the UK occurred at the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal, Buncefield. (See 2005 Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal fire).[10]
Geography[link]
 |
Leighton Buzzard | Luton | Redbourn | |
| Berkhamsted |  |
St Albans | ||
 Hemel Hempstead East |
||||
 |
||||
| Bovingdon | Watford | Radlett |
Hemel Hempstead grew up in a shallow chalkland valley at the confluence of the rivers Gade and Bulbourne, 27 miles (43 km) north-west of central London.
The main railway line between London Euston and the Midlands passes through Apsley and Hemel Hempstead railway stations a mile south of the town centre, as does the Grand Union Canal. These links, as well as the A41 trunk road, follow the course of the River Bulbourne river valley. The New Town expansion took place up the valley sides and on to the plateau above the original Old Town. In the 1990s, a motorway-style bypass numbered A41 was built to the south and west of the town across the upland chalk plateau, which does not follow the lie of the land. Hemel Hempstead is also linked to the M1 motorway to the east. The M25 is a few miles to the south. To the north and west lie mixed farm and woodland with scattered villages, part of the Chiltern Hills. To the northwest lies Berkhamsted. To the south lies Watford and the beginnings of the Greater London conurbation. To the east lies St Albans, a historic cathedral and market town and now like Hemel Hempstead, part of the London commuter belt. Possibly the best view of Hemel Hempstead in its physical setting is from the top of Roughdown Common, a chalk hill to the south of the town, at TL 049 055.
Climate[link]
Hemel Hempstead experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.
| Climate data for Hemel Hempstead | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 6 (43) |
7 (45) |
10 (50) |
12 (54) |
16 (61) |
19 (66) |
21 (70) |
22 (72) |
18 (64) |
14 (57) |
9 (48) |
6 (43) |
13 (55) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 3 (37) |
3 (37) |
4 (39) |
5 (41) |
8 (46) |
10 (50) |
12 (54) |
13 (55) |
11 (52) |
8 (46) |
5 (41) |
3 (37) |
7 (45) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 69.3 (2.728) |
59.4 (2.339) |
46.5 (1.831) |
70.1 (2.76) |
58.1 (2.287) |
58.9 (2.319) |
46.0 (1.811) |
68.9 (2.713) |
51.7 (2.035) |
84.3 (3.319) |
93.9 (3.697) |
80.9 (3.185) |
788.0 (31.024) |
| Source: [11] | |||||||||||||
Neighbourhoods in Hemel Hempstead[link]
The grand design for Hemel Hempstead newtown saw each new district centred around a parade or square of shops called a neighborhood centre. Other districts existed before the newtown as suburbs, villages and industrial centers and were incorporated into the town.
- Adeyfield — Located on a hill to the east of the old town, this was the first of the New Town districts to be started. The first four families of Hemel Hempstead’s new town moved into their homes in Adeyfield on Wednesday, 8 February 1950.
- Apsley — a nineteenth century mill town a mile south of old Hemel which grew up around the paper making industry — notably the John Dickinson Stationery mills. Now a suburb of Hemel with many warehouse outlets set in Retail parks, a large office facility for Hertfordshire County Council and a large Sainsbury's Supermarket.
- Bennetts End — Located on the rising ground to the south east and another original district of the new town. Construction began in 1951 and by autumn 1952 300 houses were occupied.
- Boxmoor — A mostly Victorian era developed district to the southwest which grew up because of its proximity to the London Midland and Scottish Railway station and trains to London.
- Chaulden — an early new town district, west of the town, commenced in 1953 with its own neighbourhood shopping centre.
- Corner Hall — an estate adjacent to the plough roundabout frequently thought to be part of Apsley. Bounded by Lawn lane and St Albans Hill.
- Cupid Green — a sixties estate north east of the town on the site of the old fireworks factory.
- Felden — Felden is a partly rural area south west of Hemel Hempstead that has many wealthy detached houses. It is home to the national headquarters of the Boys' Brigade.
- Gadebridge — A later 1960s development located north west of the old town.
- Grovehill — Grovehill is a housing estate towards the northern edge of Hemel Hempstead. It was developed as part of the second wave of development of the New Town commencing in 1967 and completed in stages by the early 1980s. Within the estate there are such features as 'Henry Wells Square' containing local shops, off licences, a pub, a 12 table snooker club. The estate also contains 'Grovehill Community Centre', the local 'Grovehill Playing Fields', home to many football (soccer) pitches, a baseball ground and changing facilities. Grovehill also incorporates various churches, a doctor's surgery and a dental surgery as well as several schools including The Astley Cooper School.
- Highfield — a district of the original new town located north of the old town.
- Leverstock Green — A village 4 km east of the old town which pre-existed the new town and which has now been subsumed into it, although retaining its original village centre. It was once a popular place for actors and artists to live.
- Nash Mills — a historic name for a district beside the River Gade downstream and southeast of the town which had water mills present since at least the 11th century. It is now a mix of industrial use and housing from the nineteenth century through to small modern developments.
- Warner's End — an original new town residential district on chalk upland to the west of Hemel Hempstead where work commenced in 1953.
- Woodhall Farm — A housing estate on the north eastern edge of town towards Redbourn. Woodhall Farm was built in the mid to late 1970s on the former Brock's Fireworks site with a mix of private and housing association stock. Built by Fairview Estates it has property ranging from four-bedroom detached houses down to one bedroom low-rise flats. The area has a shopping centre with a Sainsbury's, Newsagents, Takeaway and Off-licence. It also has two infant schools and middle schools and a doctors surgery serving the local area.
Developments since the new town[link]
File:MG 7195.jpg
Apsley Lock Marina on the Grand Union Canal, Hemel Hempstead
Jarman Fields was previously agricultural land. The developments, including that of the adjacent McDonalds restaurant were built on land originally donated to the town for recreational purposes.[citation needed] Land had also been reserved for a hotel[citation needed], but still remains derelict. Replacement openspace was created to the east of the town, near Leverstock Green, Longdean Park and Nash Mills. The first phase of recreational facilities, which opened in 1978, was the Loco Motion Skate Park. Subsequently, it became a dry ski slope with a small nursery (Jack & Jills) next to it. Both areas were removed to make way for The Snow Centre which opened in 2010. A Tesco superstore was built in 1994, which was later expanded into a Tesco Extra and was the first to be built with natural light let in[citation needed]. The Leisure World complex opened in 1995. The Odeon Cinemas complex had eight film screens and is currently operated by Empire Cinemas. In addition there is an ice rink (Planet Ice, originally Silver Blades), a water park (Aqua Splash), a Burger King, an athletics track for the local sports group Sportspace and a Pizza Hut. It also included Toddlerworld (play area) until it was closed. Other facilities that were opened included, ten pin bowling (Hotshots), a small bar with snooker and pool tables and a large arcade next to it, and night clubs (Lava and Ignite, previously Visage & Ethos) which all closed down in September 2011. This was due to their parent Luminar Leisure going into administration. Currently plans have been submitted by the landlords Capital & Regional to redevelop the site. It will become a collection of family friendly cafes & restaurants, with Aquasplash closing down, with a brand new play area, gym, & bowling alley with the ice rink and cinema. The Leisure World complex will be demolished as soon as the new unnamed project is completed which is expected to begin construction in summer 2012 and be completed in early spring 2013. There is also an athletics track used by the local sports group Sportspace that opened in 1996. It is also used by local schools for sports days. The most recent facilities, which opened in July 2011, comprised an extreme sports centre (XC), which contains a skate park, caving, climbing walls, high ropes, a cafe and counselling rooms for young people.
The former John Dickinson Stationery mills site, straddling the canal at Apsley, was redeveloped with two Retail parks, a Sainsbury's supermarket, 3 low rise office blocks, housing, a mooring basin, and a hotel. A further office block is planned. Some buildings have been retained for their historic interest and to provide a home for the Paper Museum.
An indoor shopping mall was developed adjacent to the south end of the Marlowes retail area in 1990, and in 2005 the Riverside development designed by Bernard Engle Architects was opened, effectively extending the main shopping precinct towards the Plough roundabout. The new centre includes several outlets for national retailers including Debenhams, Starbucks, HMV, Waterstones, and more. These two developments have moved the "centre of gravity" of the retail centre away from the traditional market and the north end of Marlowes has become an area for secondary outlets.
Further extensive redevelopment of the northern end of Marlowes has recently (October 2007) been given the green light and is scheduled to be complete by 2013.
Isle of Man based residential developer Dandara have redeveloped the old Kodak headquarters into an exclusive block of flats, with a new bridge to go with it.
Since the 2005 Buncefield fire the former Maylands Avenue factory estate, badly affected by the fire, has been re branded as Maylands Business Park and a 40 tonne sculpture by Jose Zavala called Phoenix Gateway placed on the first roundabout off the M1 to symbolise its renewal.
The now disused mill site at Nash Mills is being redeveloped to build housing and community facilities, retain some historic buildings and use various watercourses as amenities.
Sport[link]
A wide range of sports and physical activities are catered for within the town and its immediate locality. Most sports facilities in the town, and the wider borough, are provided through Sportspace (the operating name of Dacorum Sports Trust). They have operated several facilities including a Sports Centre, Swimming Pools and Running Track previously run by Dacorum Borough Council and others sited at schools, since April 2004. Dacorum Sports Trust is a non-profit company limited by guarantee and a registered charity managed by a Board of Trustees. Surpluses (profits) are reinvested into sports facilities.[12]
Hemel Hempstead Town football club dates back to 1885 and now play in the Southern Football League Premier Division. Nicknamed The Tudors, they play at Vauxhall Road in the Adeyfield area of the town; this was the site of the former sports club for the employees of Brocks Fireworks. There are, of course, many amateur sides throughout the town.
The Camelot Rugby Club plays Rugby Union and it is one of the oldest clubs in England, being founded in 1919. The club's home ground is in Chaulden.[13] Hemel Stags, founded in 1981, are the only rugby league team from the South of England to play in the Rugby League Conference National league. Indeed, their success has led to the Rugby Football League agreeing to admit the team to Championship 1 for the 2013 season. In addition, rugby league is now played at every senior school in the town.
Hemel Hempstead Town Cricket Club, founded in 1850, has a pitch and practice facilities at Heath Park, near the town centre. The Boxmoor Cricket Club, founded in 1857, have a ground nearby on Blackbirds Moor. At Leverstock Green, there is the eponymously named Leverstock Green Cricket Club.
Hemel Hempstead has an indoor Snow Centre, a real snow indoor sports venue which, opened in April 2009, and offers a range of indoor snow based sports and activities.
File:Hemel bowls.JPG
Playing bowls at Gadebridge Park
Dacorum Athletic Club is based at Jarmans Park. Hemel Hempstead Bowls Club has its greens at Gadebridge Park.
Gadebridge Park also has an outdoor skatepark that was designed and supplied by local extreme sports fanatics "Hemel Skates" after earning ₤65,000 through fundraising.
Leverstock Green Tennis Club provides courts and coaching for members and other courts are available in public parks. There are private indoor facilities at Hemel Indoor Tennis Centre at Abbot's Hill School, Nash Mills.
The local authority (Dacorum Borough Council) provides the infrastructure for several of the sports mentioned above. In addition, there is a sports centre at Boxmoor and shared public facilities at a number of secondary schools, provided via Sportspace. These provide multi-purpose courts (badminton, basketball, etc.), gymnasia and swimming pools. There are also private, member only gymnasia.
There are two 18-hole golf courses just outside the south western edge of the town. One is in the grounds of Shendish Manor and the other, Little Hay is off Box Lane, on Box Moor Trust land. There is also a nine hole course (Boxmoor) also located on Box Lane.
Aquatics[link]
Hemel Hempstead has several swimming clubs the most notable of which is Hemel Hempstead Swimming Club, the town also has FIFOLITS Swimming club and also boasts a swimming squad Dacorum Borough Swimming Squad which brings together the best swimmers in the Borough. Dacorum Borough Swimming Squad is an elite Swimming Squad made up of members from the swimming clubs in Dacorum including Hemel Hempstead Swimming Club, FIFOLITS Swimming Club, Berkhamsted Barracudas Swimming Club, Berkhamsted Sports Centre Swimming Club, Kings Langley Swimming Club and Tring Swimming Club.
Schools[link]
There are six state maintained secondary schools in the town:
- Adeyfield School — Business and Enterprise College
- Astley Cooper School — A Specialist College for the Visual Arts.
- Cavendish School — A Specialist Sports College
- The Hemel Hempstead School — A Specialist Performing Arts, Maths & Science School
- John F Kennedy Catholic School — A Specialist Technology and Modern Foreign Languages College (Roman Catholic)
- Longdean School — A Maths and Computing College
There are also independent (fee-paying) schools in, or adjacent, to the town:
- Abbot's Hill School, a day and boarding school for girls
- Lockers Park School, a day and boarding school for boys aged 5–13
- Westbrook Hay School, a co-educational school for children aged 3–13
In addition there is a West Herts College Campus based in the town centre.
In 2006, the local education authority has judged that there are too many primary school places in the town and has published proposals to reduce them.[14] The options involved school amalgamations and closures. A list of schools taking children of primary age is at Primary schools in Dacorum.
Political representation[link]
Hemel Hempstead returns its own MP at Westminster as the Hemel Hempstead parliamentary constituency. At the May 2005 General election the seat changed from Labour to Conservative. Mike Penning, (Conservative), was elected with a majority of 499, just over 1%.[15] In May 2010 Mike Penning was again returned as MP taking 50% of the vote with an increased majority of 13,406.[16] The previous MP was Tony McWalter, (Labour Co-operative), first elected 1997.
Twinned towns[link]
Hemel Hempstead, as part of the Borough of Dacorum, is twinned with:
Neu-Isenburg, Germany
Commerce, industry and agriculture[link]
Historical[link]
File:Hemel hempstead old town.JPG
Hemel Hempstead Old Town, with the spire of St Mary's Church, founded in 1140.
Historically, the area was agricultural and was noted for its rich cereal production. The agricultural journalist William Cobbett noted of Hemel Hempstead in 1822 that "..the land along here is very fine: a red tenacious flinty loam upon a bed of chalk at a yard or two beneath, which, in my opinion, is the very best corn land that we have in England."[17] By the eighteenth century the grain market in Hemel was one of the largest in the country. In 1797 there were 11 watermills working in the vicinity of the town.[18]
The chalk on which Hemel is largely built has had commercial value and has been mined and exploited to improve farmland and for building from the eighteenth century. In the Highbarns area, now residential, there was a collapse in 2007 of a section of old chalk workings and geological studies have been undertaken to show the extent of these workings.[19]
In the nineteenth century, Hemel was a noted brickmaking, paper manufacturing and straw-plaiting centre. In later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Hemel was also a noted watercress growing area, supplying 1/16 of the country's national demand — following development of the New Town, the watercress growing moved to nearby Berkhamsted and Tring. The cress beds were redeveloped as the modern-day Water Gardens.
Joseph Cranstone's engineering company was founded in 1798, and was responsible for much of the early street lighting in the town as well as it first gasworks. It became the Hemel Hempstead Engineering Company and stayed in business until World War II . In 1867 Cranstone's son built a steam powered coach which he drove to London, but which was destroyed in a crash on the return journey. A local Boxmoor pub commemorates the event.
In 1803 the first automatic papermaking machinery was developed in Hemel by the Fourdrinier brothers at Frogmore. Paper making expanded in the vicinity in the early nineteenth century and grew into the huge John Dickinson mills in the twentieth.
A traditional employer in the area was also Brock's, manufacturer of fireworks. The factory was a significant employer since well before World War II, and remained in production until the mid-1970s. The present-day neighbourhood of Woodhall farm was subsequently built on the site.
From 1967 to 1983, it was home to one of the most remarkable newspaper experiments of recent times, when the Thomson Organisation launched the Hemel Hempstead Evening Post-Echo. This comprised two evening papers - the Evening Echo and the Evening Post - and was based at a modern headquarters in Mark Road which had previously been used as a hot water bottle factory. The dual operation was conceived by Lord Thomson of Fleet to take on the Northcliffe and Beaverbrook domination of the London evening paper market and tap into what he saw as a major source of consumer advertising. The papers were remarkable not only for technological innovation but also journalistic excellence. Both the Evening Echo and Evening Post won design awards during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but it was the Evening Echo that took the major writing honours, with John Marquis being voted Provincial Journalist of the Year in 1974 and Melanie Phillips being named Young Journalist of the Year in 1975. Many outstanding journalists worked on both papers during their heyday, with several going on to be editors and leading Fleet Street figures. Unfortunately, the operation fell victim to the freesheet revolution of the 1980s, the titles closing in 1983 with the loss of 470 jobs.
Significant historic local firms:
- Addressograph, address labels and labelling systems
- Apple Computer's UK operations were originally based in Hemel, though they moved to much larger premises in Uxbridge during the late 1980s.
- British Petroleum.
- Brocks Fireworks, firework manufacturer
- Crosfield Electronics — digital imaging systems, now part of FFEI Ltd.[dated info]
- Hemel Hempstead Evening Post-Echo, then part of Thomson Regional Newspapers and one of the few nightly regional newspapers
- John Dickinson and Sons, paper manufacturing
- Kodak.
- Lucas Aerospace — relocated (as TRW Aeronautical Systems) to Pitstone in 2002.
Present day[link]
Hemel Hempstead has a mixture of heavy and light engineering companies and has attracted a significant number of information technology and telecommunications sector companies helped by its proximity to London and the UK motorway network. However, (and again in common with many new towns) it has a much narrower business base than established centres, particularly Watford and St Albans.
Significant firms with a local presence include:
- 3Com, Telecommunications equipment
- ACT (formerly Apricot Computers)
- Aquascutum, Clothing manufacturer
- ASOS.com, Customer Care department of UK's largest online fashion retailer
- Bourne Leisure
- BP Oil, petroleum
- BSI Product Services
- Gist Food distribution for Marks & Spencer
- Glanville Consultants, Civil and Structural Engineering Consultants.
- British Telecom, telecommunications
- BSI (British Standards Institution) materials testing
- DSG International plc (formerly Dixons Group), electrical retailer (global headquarters)
- Dixons, electrical retailer (national headquarters)
- DuPont, petrochemicals
- Epson, Consumer Electronics
- Friedheim International, pre- and postpress printing & bookbinding equipment
- Filippo Berio UK Olive Oil
- Hewitt Associates, Human resources (personnel) out-sourcing organisation
- HSBC Bank, Telephone services & Head Office Operations
- Kent Brushes (G B Kent & Sons Ltd) — Established in 1777 & has been manufacturing brushes in Apsley for most of that time.
- Kodak, photography — (formerly in central Hemel, now located on 3Com Campus)
- NEXT, clothing (distribution centre)
- Northgate Information Solutions, specialist software for human resources
- Sappi group, paper, at Nash Mills. Has announced the mill will close in 2006
- Steria computers, IT services
- Transcend UK office of DRAM and Flash memory manufacturer
- Unisys, computers
- Xerox Office Supplies, Document supplies, paper development
Hemel's notable features[link]
Hemel is famous for its "Magic Roundabout" (officially called the Moor End roundabout, or "The Plough Roundabout" from a former adjacent public house), an interchange at the end of the town centre (Moor End), where traffic from six routes meet. Traffic is able to circulate in both directions around what appears to be a main central roundabout (and formerly was such), with the normal rules applying at each of the six mini-roundabouts encircling this central reservation. It is a misconception that the traffic flows the 'wrong' way around the inner roundabout; as it is not in fact a roundabout at all, and as such no roundabout rules apply to it. It was the first such circulation system in Britain.
Hemel claims to have the first purpose built multi-storey car park in Britain. Built in 1960 into the side of a hill in the Marlowes shopping district, it features a giant humorous mosaic map of the area by the artist Rowland Emett.
The new town centre contains many sculptures by notable artists from the 1950s including a 1955 stone mural by sculptor Alfred Gerrard entitled Stages in the Development of Man . There is also the Rock & Rollers sculpture, the Discobulous fellow, who once resided outside Bank Court but has been moved to the water gardens, Water Play, a fountain, a 3D map of 1940s Hemel, and a giant rainbow mosiac, which is the most recognisable sculpture in Hemel.
The new town centre is laid out alongside landscaped gardens and water features formed from the River Gade known as the Watergardens designed by G.A. Jellicoe. The main shopping street, Marlowes, was pedestrianised in the early 1990s.
Hemel also was home of one of the first community based television stations West Herts TV which later became Channel 10.
For many years the lower end of Marlowes featured a distinctive office building built as a bridge-like structure straddling the main road. This building was erected on the site of an earlier railway viaduct carrying the Hemel to Harpenden railway, known as The Nicky Line. When the new town was constructed, this part of the railway was no longer in use and the viaduct demolished. The office building, occupied by BP, was designed to create a similar skyline and effect as the viaduct. In the early 1980s it was discovered that the building was subsiding dangerously and it was subsequently vacated and demolished. Adjacent to BP buildings was a unique double-helix public car park. The lower end of Marlowes was redeveloped into the Riverside shopping complex, which opened on 27 October 2005. Retailers taking residence at the Riverside complex, include Debenhams and HMV.
A few metres away, overlooking the 'Magic Roundabout', is Hemel's tallest building; the 22-storey Kodak building. Built as the Kodak company's UK HQ the tower was vacated in 2005. It was then temporarily reoccupied in 2006 after the Buncefield explosion destroyed Kodak's other Hemel offices. It is now being converted into 434 apartment homes.[20]
The Heathrow airport holding area known as the Bovingdon stack lies just west of the town. On a clear day, at peak times, several circling aircraft can be visible.
The national headquarters of the Boys' Brigade is located at Felden Lodge, near Hemel.
A series of 10m high blue steel arches called the Phoenix Gateway has been installed on the roundabout closest to the Hemel Hempstead junction of the M1 motorway. The aim is to regenerate the town after the Buncefield explosion with a striking piece of commercial art. It is funded by the East of England Development Agency.[21]
Notable people[link]
Notable people associated with the town in order of birth date:
- Nicholas Breakspear (c. 1100–1159), the only English Pope (Adrian IV 1154-1159) was born in nearby Bedmond, a village between Hemel and Abbots Langley.
- Richard Field (1561–1616) a theologian associated with the founding of the Anglican Church, was born in Hemel Hempstead.
- Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) was lord of the manor of Gorehambury which included Hemel Hempstead from 1601.
- Robert Snooks (c. 1761-1802) England's last highwayman to be executed and buried at the scene of his crime lies here.
- Sir Astley Cooper (1768–1841) English surgeon and anatomist. Lived at Gadebridge House, the grounds of which are now a public park.
- John Dickinson (1782–1869), inventor and founder of the paper mills at Apsley and Nash Mills which evolved into John Dickinson plc, built and lived at Abbots Wood, Nash Mills.
- Sir Arthur Evans, (1851–1941) archaeologist, was born at "The Red House", Nash Mills.
- Lyn Harding (1867–1952) actor and film star lived at a house called Logandene in Tile Kiln Lane, Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead.
- Prince Maurice of Battenberg (1891–1914), grandson of Queen Victoria was a student at Lockers Park School.
- Loben Edward Harold Maund (1892–1957) was a rear admiral of the Royal Navy and captain of HMS Ark Royal at the time of her sinking in November 1941.
- Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900–1979), admiral, statesman and an uncle of the Duke of Edinburgh, was a student at Lockers Park School.
- Guy Burgess, (1911–1963), Russian spy, was a student at Lockers Park School.
- Ashley George Old, (1913–2001), the artist spent many months in Hemel Hempstead in 1959 recording the changes as the New Town evolved.
- Salem Hanna Khamis (1919–2005) was a Palestinian economic statistician for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization who helped formalise the Geary-Khamis method of computing purchasing power parity of currencies. In later life lived in Hemel Hempstead and died there.
- Roger Moore, (born 1927) actor, famous for his roles as The Saint and James Bond, lived in Tile Kiln Close, Leverstock Green, Hemel Hempstead in the 1960s.
- Christopher Trace (1933–1992) first presenter of BBC TV's Blue Peter children's show lived for a time in Blacksmiths Row, Leverstock Green.
- James Purves (born 1937), cricketer
- Bill Morris OJ (born 1938), former leader of the TGWU, lived in Hemel Hempstead and still lives within the Borough of Dacorum.
- Michael Bradshaw (1933–2001) English/Canadian actor grew up in Boxmoor from 1938 until the mid-50s
- The Nawab of Pataudi, (1941–2011) captain of the Indian Cricket team, was a student at Lockers Park School.
- Malcolm Phipps (b 1942) 7th Dan Kyoshi in Shotokan Karate and is the Chief Instructor internationally to Seishinkai Shotokan Karate International (SSKI).
- Elaine Taylor (born 1943), actress, married to Christopher Plummer.
- Les Ebdon (b 1947) Director of OFFA attended Hemel Hempstead Grammar School
- Paul Boateng, (born 1951) Britain's first black Cabinet minister and Ambassador to South Africa, attended Apsley Grammar School (now part of Longdean School). He first stood for Parliament in Hemel Hempstead's constituency.
- Dave Vanian (born 1956)(real name David Letts), the lead singer of The Damned, was born and lived in Chaulden.
- Ian Lygo, famous for his record-breaking 75 consecutive wins on UK Quiz show 100%, lives in Hemel Hempstead.
- Neil March (born 1963) is an internationally renowned contemporary composer, lived in Hemel Hempstead until 1988 and attended Westwick JMI, Hemel Hempstead and Cavendish Schools.
- Chris Pig (born 1965) is an internationally respected master printmaker, lived in Hemel Hempstead and attended Longdean School.
- Claire Skinner (born 1965) the distinguished actress was born (1965) and raised in Hemel Hempstead.
- Vinnie Jones, (born 1965) footballer and actor, is a local resident.
- Steven Wilson, (born 1967) multi-instrumental musician, singer, songwriter and producer was raised here from age 6 after his family moved from London. His band Porcupine Tree was also formed in Hemel Hempstead around the year 1987. His home studio "No-Mans Land" is located here.
- Oliver Low (born 1970) in Hemel Hempstead a poet, software engineer, composer, games designer and author.
- Colin Edwin (born 1970) Bass player with Porcupine Tree was educated and lived in Hemel Hempstead.
- Luke Donald, (born 1977) was born in Hemel Hempstead. He is a golfer who plays mainly on the US based PGA Tour.
- Marc Bircham, (born 1978) currently lives in Hemel Hempstead near the Shendish estate. He is a retired Canadian footballer who played for QPR. Millwall FC and Yeovil Town FC. He has also figured in the Canada men's national soccer team.
- Anthony Davidson, (born 1979) Formula One driver was born here. Formula One drivers Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi live in Apsley.
- Tommy W. Smith, (born 1980) was born in Hemel Hempstead. He is a footballer who currently plays for Queens Park Rangers FC in the Premier League.
- Lee Grant, (born 1983), an English footballer, currently playing as goalkeeper for Burnley.
- Chris Eagles, (born 1985) footballer for Bolton Wanderers in the Premier League is from Hemel Hempstead.
- Jordan Parkes,(born 1989), an English footballer, currently playing for Barnet, is from Leverstock Green.
- Theo Walcott, (born 1989),an English footballer, currently lives with his family in the Hemel Hempstead area.
Film and television production[link]
Quatermass 2 used Hemel Hempstead, which was at the time under development, for the fictional new town of Winerton Flats.[22]
Pie in the Sky (a BBC police drama) was filmed in Hemel. At one point, the site for the restaurant was a florist but is currently a shop selling Dolls Houses. A nearby restaurant changed its name to Pie in the Sky for a short time while the series was popular. The current shopfront and surrounding properties were also featured in the Midsomer Murders episode "The Sword of Guillaume".
Birthday Girl (a 1998 film starring Nicole Kidman and Ben Chaplin) features Hemel Hempstead prominently during scenes showing the main character going to and from his place of work (a fictional bank somewhere in Bank Court). However scenes shown in the parking garage and the side streets show St Albans.
A film version of the TV series Till Death Us Do Part was filmed in part around the town.
The Old Town appeared for a few seconds in the Oasis soft drink 'Fruity drinks and lunchtime dreams' TV commercial first aired in 2010 – the moving sandwich shop rolls down High Street.[23]
Art and photograph gallery[link]
-
The woods at Cupid's Green, painted by Ashley George Old in 1959
-
The Old Bell pub in Hemel old town has parts built in 1615 but is on the site of even older inns. Contains some unusual French wallpaper dating back to 1821, which has been cleaned by the Victoria & Albert Museum.
-
This 1971 office block formed Kodak's European HQ until closed in 2006. It is currently (2010) being converted into flats. In the foreground is the River Gade and to the right a road sign for the 'Magic Roundabout'.
-
Apsley Lock Marina.JPG
Apsley Lock Marina, Hemel Hempstead, built in 2003.
-
Apsley1.JPG
The Church of St Mary's (1871) stands above the modern Sainsburys supermarket in Apsley.
-
Hhmra4146.jpg
Northeast side of The Magic Roundabout, Hemel Hempstead. The "roundabout" is a series of 6 mini roundabouts spaced around a larger closely looped circulation system.
See also[link]
References[link]
- ^ Origin of the name, Hertfordshire Genealogy, UK. Accessed June 2006.
- ^ Rye, James (7 May 2009). "Norfolk and Suffolk Place-Names". The Larks Press. pp. see "-stede". http://www.englishplacenames.co.uk/. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
- ^ Susan Yaxley
- ^ "A Key to English Place-Names Hemel Hempstead". Institute for Name-Studies,. School of English Studies, University of Nottingham,. http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~aezins/kepn/detailpop.php?placeno=4591. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
- ^ A History of Roosevelt, Roosevelt Union Free School, Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, USA. Accessed January 2010.
- ^ Wright, George Newenham (1836). A new and comprehensive gazetteer, Volume 3. T. Kelly,. p. 382. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DiQDAAAAYAAJ&dq=Muresley%20Priory&pg=PA382#v=onepage&q=hempstead&f=false.
- ^ Dacorum Heritage Trust
- ^ The Chiltern Canal Corridor Castle Wharf project Berkhamsted. Accessed April 2007
- ^ Yaxley, page 264
- ^ "Buncefield tank 'was overflowing'". BBC News. 9 May 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4752819.stm. Retrieved 5 June 2007.
- ^ "Averages for Hemel Hempstead". http://weather.msn.com/monthly_averages.aspx?wealocations=wc:UKXX0527&q=Hemel+Hempstead%2c+GBR+forecast:averagesm.
- ^ "About us". Dacorum Sports Trust. 2007. http://www.sportspace.co.uk/default.asp?step=2&id=1. Retrieved 28 September 2009. [dead link]
- ^ Camelot website
- ^ "Hemel Hempstead Review of Primary School Places". Hertfordshire County Council. September 2006. http://www.hertsdirect.org/infobase/docs/pdfstore/hemhemp06.pdf. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
- ^ "BBC News — Result: Hemel Hempstead". 6 May 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2005/html/310.stm. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
- ^ "BBC News — Result: Hemel Hempstead". 6 May 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/c12.stm. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
- ^ http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp?t_id=Cobbett&c_id=8&p_id=573#pn_8 visionofbritain.org.uk
- ^ Hemel Trade Directory 1797
- ^ "About the chalk mines". Dacorum Borough Council. 2008. http://www.dacorum.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=5692. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
- ^ Council go-ahead for former Kodak site after cut in number of homes Hemel Hempstead Gazette, 4 April 2007. Accessed August 2007
- ^ Name for new Maylands sculpture Hemel Hempstead Gazette, 30 May 2007. Accessed August 2007
- ^ Hearn, Marcus; Jonathan Rigby (2003). Quatermass 2. Viewing Notes. London: DD Video. DD06155.
- ^ Oasis commercial, YouTube.
Further reading[link]
- Edwards, Dennis F.(1994) Hemel Hempstead in old picture postcards European Library, ISBN 90-288-5797-4.
- Hemel Hempstead Directory of 1797 — Early description of the town at Hertfordshire Genealogy. Retrieved November 2009
- Description of Hemel Hempstead (1870–72), John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales . [1]
- Yaxley, Susan; and others (1973, reprinted 1981). History of Hemel Hempstead. Amplion Press: Hemel Hempstead Local History and Records Society. ISBN 0-9502743-0-5.
- Buteux, Elizabeth (2005). Hemel Hempstead — A History and Celebration. Salisbury, Wiltshire: The Francis Frith Collection. ISBN 1-84589-206-2.
- Hastie, Scott; Fletcher, Lynne (1997). Hemel Hempstead — The Story of New Town Development. Dacorum Borough Council. ISBN 0-9511539-2-7.
Footnotes[link]
"How historic treasures have devalued a house", Sunday Times, 12 November 2000 by Chris Partridge; p. 15
External links[link]
- Pictures of Hemel in 1974
- Dacorum Borough Council Local authority pages on Hemel Hempstead.
- Hemel Web Community web page.
- Hemel on-line Hemel Hempstead community website.
- Photo gallery showing redevelopment of Kodak building
- Hemel Hempstead Local History & Museum Society
- Photos of Hemel and surrounding area Indexed by OS grid square at www.geograph.co.uk
- Hemel Hempstead (Pictures and History) on A Guide to Old Hertfordshire
- A Brief History of Hemel Hempstead A Blog on Hemel Hempstead's local history.
- Berkhamsted and Hemel Hempstead Hockey Club
- Maylands Business Park
- Hemel Hempstead Swimming Club
- Boho Boxmoor The online magazine for Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead people.
- Snow Centre The Snow Centre Hemel Hempstead.
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