Hemel Hempstead

Hemel Hempstead
New Town Square in Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead
Marlowes shopping area in Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead
 Hemel Hempstead shown within Hertfordshire
Population 94,932 
OS grid referenceTL 056 071
DistrictDacorum
Shire countyHertfordshire
RegionEast
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited 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 ParliamentHemel Hempstead
List of places
UK
England
Hertfordshire

Coordinates: 51°45′09″N 0°28′09″W / 51.7526°N 0.4692°W / 51.7526; -0.4692

Hemel Hempstead /ˈhɛməl ˈhɛmpstᵻd/ is a large new town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, 24 miles (39 km) northwest of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population according to the 2001 Census was 81,143, and at the 2011 census was 94,932. Developed after the Second World War 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

Origin of the name

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 "Hamelamestede",[2] but in later centuries it became Hamelhamsted, and, possibly, Hemlamstede.[3] 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.[4]

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".[5][6]

The town is now known to residents as "Hemel" and is often colloquialized to "'emel", however before the Second World War locals called it "Hempstead". Emigrants 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.[7]

Early history

The Norman church of St Mary's (1140)

Remains of Roman villa farming settlements have been found at Boxmoor and Gadebridge which span the entire period of Roman Britain. A well preserved Roman burial mound is located in Highfield.[8]

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-foot-tall (61 m) spire, added in the 12th century, one of Europe's tallest.

After the Norman conquest, Robert, Count of Mortain, the elder half-brother of William the Conqueror, was granted lands associated with Berkhamsted Castle which included Hemel Hempstead. The estates passed through several hands over the next few centuries including Thomas Becket in 1162. Hemel Hempstead was in the Domesday hundred of Danais (Daneys, i.e. Danish) which by 1200 had been combined with the hundred of Tring to form the hundred of Dacorum,[9] which maintained its court into the 19th century. In 1290 King John'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 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). Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are reputed to have stayed in the town at this time.[10]

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.[11]

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.

18th to mid-20th century

Hemel Hempstead Old Town

Hemel's position on the shortest route between London and the industrial Midlands put it on the Sparrows Herne Turnpike Road in 1762, the Grand Junction Canal in 1795 and the London and Birmingham Railway in 1837.[12] 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, the Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead Railway, connecting to its mainline at Harpenden in 1877. Hemel steadily expanded, but only became a borough on 13 July 1898.

During the Second World War ninety high explosive bombs were dropped on the town by the Luftwaffe. The most notorious incident was on 10 May 1942 when a stick of bombs demolished houses at Nash Mills killing eight people. The nearby Dickinson factories which were used to produce munitions, were the target.[13]

New town

After the Second World War, 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.[14] 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".

Marlowes shopping centre and pedestrianised high street

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 Geoffrey 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 revolutionary double 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. (It was quickly christened 'The Magic Roundabout' by locals, echoing the name of the children's TV show.) 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'.

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 Marlowe's south of the old town. This was alongside a green area called the Water Gardens, designed by Jellicoe, 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, reverted to RAF use at this time, continuing as an active military airfield until 1971. 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 post-war 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 1974, 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.

At the 2001 census, Hemel Hempstead was the most populated urban area in Hertfordshire, narrowly more populated than its traditionally "larger" rival, Watford.

Geography

Neighbouring areas
Leighton Buzzard Luton Harpenden
Berkhamsted St Albans
   Hemel Hempstead  
Chesham Watford Radlett
Aerial view of Hemel Hempstead

Hemel Hempstead grew up in a shallow chalkland valley at the confluence of the rivers Gade and Bulbourne, 27 miles (43 km) northwest of central London. The New Town expansion took place up the valley sides and on to the plateau above the original Old Town.

To the north and west lie mixed farm and woodland with scattered villages, part of the Chiltern Hills. To the west lies Berkhamsted. The River Bulbourne flows along the south-western edge of the town through Boxmoor. 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.

Districts

Post-war 1950s housing typical of Hemel Hempstead New Town. Kiln Ground, Bennetts End.

The grand design for Hemel Hempstead newtown saw each new district centred around a parade or square of shops called a neighbourhood centre. Other districts existed before the newtown as suburbs, villages and industrial centres and were incorporated into the town.

Developments since the new town

Apsley Lock Marina on the Grand Union Canal, Hemel Hempstead

Jarman Park, the central location for leisure in the town, was previously agricultural land, which later becomes fields named after former town councilor and mayor, Henry Jarman, who oversaw the development of the New Town. The developments were built on land originally donated to the town for recreational purposes. Land had also been reserved for a hotel, but still remains derelict. Replacement open space 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 & Jill's) next to it. Both areas were removed to make way for the Snow Centre which opened in 2009. A Tesco superstore was built in 1994 along with a petrol station, which was later expanded into a Tesco Extra complete with a new Harris + Hoole coffee shop on the first floor. It was the first to be built with natural light let in. The Jarman Square complex opened on the 25th August 1995 (formerly named Leisure World and managed by The Rank Organisation,) currently managed by the Tesco Pension Fund. The current 17 screen Empire Cinemas is its flagship attraction. In addition to the cinema inside Jarman Square there is an ice rink (Planet Ice, originally Silver Blades) several restaurants including Nando's, Bella Italia, Coast to Coast, Chiquito, Frankie & Benny's, Subway and Hungry Horse, and a gym operated by The Gym Group.

When it was opened as Leisure World, the cinema originally had 8 screens and was operated by Odeon Cinemas. The complex also included the upstairs Toddlerworld play area, the Aquasplash water park, Hotshots, which was a 30 lane ten pin bowling facility with a bar, Jarman Park Bowls Club, an upstairs bowls facility a Burger King, a Pizza Hut, a large arcade in the middle of the building, snooker and pool tables, a discothèque called Visage, later named Lava, a nightclub named Ethos, later named Ignite and a themed bar named Jumpin Jaks, later named JJ's, as well as the aforementioned ice rink. It was built at a cost of £22 million[15] and even had its own mascots, Larry the aquatic creature and Pierre the ice skating polar bear.[16] Toddlerworld closed in 2004 for unknown reasons. The nightclub, discothèque, themed bar and Hotshots all closed in 2011 due to their parent company Luminar Leisure going into administration. Aquasplash closed in early 2014 to make way for new developments. The Pizza Hut then left at the end of the same year.

In 2012 plans were submitted by the then landlords Capital & Regional to redevelop the site. It proposed a collection of family friendly cafes & restaurants, with Aquasplash closing down, with a brand new play area, gym and bowling alley with the ice rink and cinema. The Leisure World complex would be demolished as soon as the new unnamed project is completed. This was expected to begin construction in summer 2012 and be completed in early spring 2013. However, no developments took place for a couple of years. The ice rink was also proposed to close, a move seen as controversial by many locals. But after a lengthy campaign from activists, the ice rink was saved. Finally, in July 2014, demolition of the old nightclubs and the Aquasplash began, to be replaced by a new plan from new landlords featuring new restaurants and a gym, which opened between December 2014 and June 2015. The cinema continued to operate while the ice rink went under refurbishment. The cinema then revealed it was planning to expand from 8 screens to 17, with the old bowling alley, arcade, snooker & pool, bowls, Burger King and play area were becoming a new set of cinemas, while 6 of the original screens would become new restaurants. The remaining originals were converted into 3 screens, with Screens 8 becoming one of the cinema's own brand IMPACT screens, Screen 7 being used for the foyer and toilets, and Screen 6 becoming one large 281 IMAX auditorium. There is also a conference room and a children's party room added to the complex as well, with new staff toilets, offices and a staff room. As of March 2016, the new restaurants and the IMPACT Luxury screen are still under construction, but the other 16 new screens have been completed, with the IMAX opening on 17 December 2015 and the IMPACT Blue opening on the 26th February 2016, while the others opened in late October the same year. As well as the new screens,[17] A new Strada restaurant is also to move in where the Pizza Hut used to be.

There is also an athletics track used by the local sports group Sportspace that opened in 1996, with a small children's play park next to it which was refurbished mid 2015. It is also used by local schools for sports days. The most recent facilities, which opened in July 2011 and was built on a small unused park, is an extreme sports centre called XC, which contains a skate park, caving, climbing walls, high ropes, a café and counselling rooms for young people. It is co-run by Youth Connexions and Sportspace, and was built on land for a small park. In the centre of Jarman Park, there is also a McDonald's restaurant that has been open since 1995 and was refurbished in 2012.

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 was also built. 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 Marlowe's 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, Waterstones and more. These two developments have moved the "centre of gravity" of the retail centre away from the north end of Marlowe's has become an area for secondary outlets. Further extensive redevelopment of the northern end of Marlowe's was also given the green light in 2007 and has now been completed.

In late 2014, the "Hemel Evolution " project by the council began, with £30 million devoted to improving the town centre's appearance. To begin, the Old Town was refurbished with new paving, signage, and landscaping.[18] The old council buildings and library has closed down, to be replaced with a new development named "The Forum", where Dacorum Borough Council, the new library, Hertfordshire Police's Safer Neighbourhood Team, the Hertfordshire Registration and Citizenship Service, Dacorum Community Trust, Mediation Dacorum, Relate and the Citizen's Advice Bureau will all be located at. 200 new homes will surround the new development. This will be enhanced by a riverside walk/cycle way, with the now disused Market Square becoming more leisure facilities.[19]

The Jellicoe Water Gardens are also set to be resorted to their former glory, clearing up the overgrown trees, introducing a new play area, a growing area for picnics and gardening to replace the old play area, a community centre for volunteers, learning organisations and schools, as well as the Friends of the Jellicoe Water Gardens and a new terrace for the flower garden.[20] The Hospital area will get new and improved access,[21] while the area around the Plough roundabout will receive new modern walkways, as well as new lighting, seating and flowers.[22]

The pedestrianised high street is also being redeveloped, with a new play area and new play equipment around the street, such as coloured balls, slides, a tightrope and trampolines. A large electronic screen has been installed, and the water play fountain is to be converted into one with water jets, with the old sculpture placed on top of a new pillar detailing the work of Geoffrey Jellicoe. Bank Court is becoming a piazza environment for market stalls and other stuff, with new greenery to make it seem more like a park. The food court will receive more options and improved seating has already been installed. More lighting will be installed as well.[23] This should all hopefully be completed by the end of 2015.

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 rebranded 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 has been redeveloped to build housing and community facilities, it retains some historic buildings and uses various watercourses as amenities.

Commerce, industry and agriculture

Historical

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."[24] By the 18th 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.[25]

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 18th 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.[26]

In the 19th century, Hemel was a noted brickmaking, paper manufacturing and straw-plaiting centre. In later 19th and early 20th 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 the Second World War. 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 19th century and grew into the huge John Dickinson mills in the 20th.

A traditional employer in the area was also Brock's, manufacturer of fireworks. The factory was a significant employer since well before the Second World War, 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 include:

Present day

Phoenix Gateway sculpture at the entrance to Maylands Business Park commemorates the Buncefield fire.

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:

Transport

Hemel Hempstead railway station is on the West Coast Main Line, on the western edge of the town.

In 1798 the construction of the Grand Junction Canal reached Hemel Hempstead. Now part of the Grand Union Canal, it is a popular route for narrowboat pleasure craft and is maintained by the Canal & River Trust.

Hemel Hempstead railway station is located a mile south of the town centre in Boxmoor. It is on the West Coast Main Line and there are frequent services between London Euston and the Midlands operated by London Midland, with additional direct services to South Croydon via the West London Line operated by Southern.

A railway station previously existed in the town centre, known as the Midland railway station, on the former Nickey Line to Harpenden. This station closed to passenger services in 1947 (along with the line) and it was demolished in 1969.[27]

The Hemel Hempstead bus station is situated in Waterhouse Street. In 2013 Dacorum Council announced that the bus station will be demolished and replaced with a new bus interchange next to the Marlowes Shopping Centre on Bridge Street. The project is due to be completed by September 2014.[28]

In the 1990s the A41 dual carriageway was built to the south and west of the town across the upland chalk plateau. Hemel Hempstead is also linked to the M1 motorway to the east and the M25 is a few miles to the south.

The A414 road begins in Hemel Hempstead and forms a largely dual carriageway route east west through the county of Hertfordshire to Maldon in Essex.

The A41, the West Coast railway line and the canal all follow the course of the River Bulbourne river valley.

Sport

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.[29]

Hemel Hempstead Town football club dates back to 1885 and now play in the Conference South. 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.

Camelot Rugby Club is a rugby union club founded in 1919 and play in London 2 North West, a seventh tier league in the English rugby union league system. The club's home ground is at Chaulden Lane, Chaulden.[30]

In rugby league, Hemel Stags, founded in 1981, were admitted to the third tier Championship 1 in the 2013 season and now operate as a semi-professional club. In addition, rugby league is 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.

A large multiple roomed indoor laser tag arena called Quasar has been located in the Marlowes since 1994.[31]

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.

Playing bowls at Gadebridge Park

Dacorum Athletic Club is based at Jarman 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, 'members 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 was also a 9-hole course (Boxmoor) also located on Box Lane. This closed in July 2011, and is now overgrown, mainly used for people walking their dogs.

Wildcards Roller Hockey Club was established in 1996 and is a non-profit making organisation run by volunteers to enable people to play Inline Hockey in Hertfordshire.

Jarman Park had a ten pin bowling alley, ice skating, and a swimming pool with slides until they closed at the end of 2013. The only 2 facilities left in Jarman Park are the XC an extreme sport centre with indoor skate boarding, rock climbing, bowls and potholing facilities. Close to Jarman Park is the Snow Centre, the UK's largest indoor ski slope.

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.

Schools

There are six state maintained secondary schools in the town:

There are also independent (fee-paying) schools in, or adjacent, to the town:

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.[32] The options involved school amalgamations and closures. A list of schools taking children of primary age is at primary schools in Dacorum.

Political representation

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%.[33] In May 2010 Mike Penning was again returned as MP taking 50% of the vote with an increased majority of 13,406.[34] The previous MP was Tony McWalter, (Labour Co-operative), first elected 1997.

Twinned towns

Hemel Hempstead, as part of the Borough of Dacorum, is twinned with:

Notable features

Hemel is famous for its "Magic Roundabout" (officially called 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 (which it used to be), with the normal rules applying at each of the six mini-roundabouts encircling this central reservation. 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, which once resided outside Bank Court but has been moved to the water gardens, Water Play, a fountain, a 3D map of 1940s Hemel, and the Residents' Rainbow, a concrete and glass rainbow sculpture in the Marlowes that has become an unofficial war memorial.[35] 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 Watergardens is home to many ducks, which have been known to cause major delays on the surrounding roads. 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 Nickey Line. When the new town was constructed, this part of the railway was no longer in use and the viaduct demolished. The Nickey Line is now used for walking. 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 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 H&M (previously HMV).

A few yards 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 has since been converted into flats.

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 in the sky.

The national headquarters of the Boys' Brigade is located at Felden Lodge, near Hemel.

A series of 33 ft 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 fire with a striking piece of commercial art. It is funded by the East of England Development Agency.[36]

Notable events

In December 2005 a series of explosions and fires at Buncefield oil depot was regarded as the largest in peace-time Europe.[37]

Buncefield fire in December 2005

Notable people

Notable people associated with the town in order of birth date:

Film, television and entertainment

Film and television production

Softly Softly an offshoot from Z Cars used Shendish House as the headquarters. Softly Softly started in 1966

The Pavilion

The Pavilion was an iconic 1960s structure sited on the Marlowes just in front of the library.[41] It was an entertainments venue that hosted emerging and internationally famous acts between the 1960s and 1990s.

Jazz artists included Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson and Buddy Rich.

Rock and Pop acts included David Bowie, Eric Clapton, U2, Ian Dury, Genesis, Quintessence and Status Quo.

The venue closed and the building demolished in 2002. According to local media reports Dacorum Borough Council decided it was 'becoming increasingly unsuitable to meet the leisure needs of the local community'. A 'memorial service' was held on the tenth anniversary of its closure in 2012.[42][43]

Art and photograph gallery

For a full list of public art works see List of public art in Hemel Hempstead

References

  1. ↑ Origin of the name, Hertfordshire Genealogy, UK. Accessed June 2006.
  2. ↑ http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TL0506/hemel-hempstead/ Open Domesday: Hemel Hempstead
  3. ↑ Plea Rolls of the Court of Common Pleas; National Archives; CP40 / 541; http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT6/R2/CP40no541a/aCP40no541afronts/IMG_0695.htm; 9th entry, first line
  4. ↑ Rye, James (7 May 2009). "Norfolk and Suffolk Place-Names". The Larks Press. pp. see "–stede". Retrieved 8 January 2010.
  5. ↑ Susan Yaxley
  6. ↑ "A Key to English Place-Names Hemel Hempstead". Institute for Name-Studies,. School of English Studies, University of Nottingham,. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
  7. ↑ A History of Roosevelt, Roosevelt Union Free School, Hempstead, Nassau County, New York City. Accessed January 2010.
  8. ↑ MONUMENT NO. 359275 , Pastscape, English Heritage Schedule Entry 24 December 1996, Accessed Aug 2012
  9. ↑ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol2/pp141-142 British History Online: The hundred of Dacorum
  10. ↑ Wright, George Newenham (1836). A new and comprehensive gazetteer, Volume 3. T. Kelly,. p. 382.
  11. ↑ Dacorum Heritage Trust
  12. ↑ The Chiltern Canal Corridor Castle Wharf project Berkhamsted. Accessed April 2007
  13. ↑ Yaxley, page 264
  14. ↑
  15. ↑ "What does the future hold for ‘Wally World’?". hemeltoday.co.uk.
  16. ↑ "Mascot Costume Company - Mascot Costume Manufacture Larry". Mascot Costume.
  17. ↑ "Phase One of £7million cinema revamp set to be unveiled". hemeltoday.co.uk.
  18. ↑ "Old Town Hemel Hempstead". dacorum.gov.uk.
  19. ↑ "Gade and Original Marlowes Zone". dacorum.gov.uk.
  20. ↑ "Jellicoe Water Gardens". dacorum.gov.uk.
  21. ↑ "Hospital Zone". dacorum.gov.uk.
  22. ↑ "Plough Zone". dacorum.gov.uk.
  23. ↑ "Marlowes shopping area and Bank Court". dacorum.gov.uk.
  24. ↑ "Vision of Britain - William Cobbett - June 19th to 24th, 1822: Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire".
  25. ↑ Chris Reynolds. "Place: Hemel Hempstead: 1797 Directory (Hertfordshire Genealogy)". hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk.
  26. ↑ "About the chalk mines". Dacorum Borough Council. 2008. Retrieved 23 November 2008.
  27. ↑ Woodward, Sue & Geoff (1996). The Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead Railway : the Nickey Line. Headington, Oxford: Oakwood Press. pp. 47; 135. ISBN 0853615020.
  28. ↑ "Hemel Hempstead's £2m bus station and leisure plans revealed". BBC News. 3 May 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  29. ↑ "About us". Dacorum Sports Trust. 2007. Archived from the original on 17 July 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2009.
  30. ↑ "Hemel Hempstead (Camelot) RUFC Hertfordshire - London & SE Division - London 2 North West". camelotrugby.co.uk.
  31. ↑ Quasar Hemel Hempstead at ihertfordshire. Accessed October 2013
  32. ↑ "Hemel Hempstead Review of Primary School Places" (PDF). Hertfordshire County Council. September 2006. Retrieved 10 January 2008.
  33. ↑ "BBC News – Result: Hemel Hempstead". 6 May 2005. Retrieved 17 May 2009.
  34. ↑ "BBC News – Result: Hemel Hempstead". 6 May 2010. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
  35. ↑ Rainbow to get a splash of colour, Hemel Gazette, 17 March 2010
  36. ↑ Name for new Maylands sculpture Hemel Hempstead Gazette, 30 May 2007. Accessed August 2007
  37. ↑ "Buncefield tank 'was overflowing'". BBC News. 9 May 2006. Retrieved 5 June 2007.
  38. ↑ Hearn, Marcus; Jonathan Rigby (2003). Quatermass 2. Viewing Notes. London: DD Video. DD06155.
  39. ↑ Oasis commercial, YouTube.
  40. ↑ "Who's the big shot kicking up a stink in Hemel?". hemeltoday. 10 October 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  41. ↑ Photo of The Pavilion in 1965 Francis Frith, Accessed 4 April 2013
  42. ↑ Campaigners to mark loss of the Pavilion Hemel Hempstead Gazette 30 June 2012, Accessed 6 April 2012
  43. ↑ Hertfordshire.com Venues' Guide, Accessed 6 April 2013

Further reading

Footnotes

"How historic treasures have devalued a house", Sunday Times, 12 November 2000 by Chris Partridge; p. 15

External links

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