Harpenden

On the third Tuesday in September, the Harpenden Statty Fair (Statute Fair) was held on the common close to the pond and the adjacent Triangle. In the late 1800s, the fair was illuminated by gas, but after the turn of the century, the steam-driven generators lit the stalls with electricity. The steam engines drew their water from the ponds. Children and young adults enjoyed the roundabouts, the cake-walk, the swings, the coconut shies and the side shows. Another fair was held on Bank Holiday Monday, and one elderly lady remembered collecting discarded ginger beer bottles to exchange for the refund of one penny after the fair had closed down for the day.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

Rothampstead, for 600 years in the hands of the Cressys, the Bardolphs and the Wittewronge-Lawes, lies close to the St Albans Road. Although the estate dates from only the 1300s, it is thought that the site may date back to the Roman period, for the remains of a Belgic shrine has been found in the grounds. The present building has a core which was built around 1600, but it has been enlarged and altered to its present size.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

The A6 road runs across the Common at Harpenden, under the ‘Baa Lamb’ trees and into the High Street. Nobody knows for certain why they are called the ‘Baa Lamb Trees’; it has been suggested that this was where the local shepherd sat whilst tending his flock. The shops sit cheek by jowl on one side of the street, whilst the other is fringed with pollarded limes and chestnuts. In these days before the drink-drive laws, the owner of the Morris Minor van has popped into the White Lion (right) for quiet pint. How similar this is to the travellers who have used the road since before Roman times and would have sought rest and refreshment at Harpenden.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

What life was like for the unfortunate plait children can be gleaned from a Factory Inspector’s report in 1870. He associated their mothers, the plait women, with ‘vacant minds, dirty cottages and neglected children’. The decline of the plait schools was caused mainly by the deterioration of the plait industry; aided by the fact that from 1891 education was not only compulsory, it was also free. The 19th century was a century of Free Trade and this allowed cheap plait imports from Italy and later from China and Japan. Plaits that were sold for one shilling (10p) a score in 1838, were only fetching 3d (1.5p) in 1893. By the 1870s an experienced plaiter’s earnings had dropped to about four shillings a week. In spite of the hardships, straw plaiting provided a much-needed income for the labouring poor and opportunities for the aged and widows, who otherwise would become a burden on the parish. The craft, the way of life of the plaiters, together with their independent spirit, has endured in local memory. At the other end of the social scale, the arrival in the early 19th century of the gentry in the form of the Cooper family provided a noticeable Tory-Anglican form of interference into local affairs. The people of Hemel Hempstead, who during the Middle Ages were ruled by the rector and monks at Ashridge, now found themselves under the stewardship of the gentry who lived at Gadebridge. Indeed, the Cooper family interfered with life in Hemel Hempstead in a way that the Lords of the Manor, the Halsey family, never did. (Dacorum Heritage Trust Ltd) Gadebridge House and estate was purchased for the town by the Hemel Hempstead Borough Council in 1952. The house became a preparatory school for boys until 1963 and was demolished when Kodak bought the site. When Kodak moved the site was developed for housing.
An extract from from"Hemel Hempstead - A History & Celebration".

The 18-storey Kodak House was built in 1971. As one of the town’s major employers, Kodak gave £10,000 for a new children’s playground to be built in Gadebridge Park to replace the one lost by the construction of the Plough roundabout. Kodak are now considering turning the photographic giant into a digital company. Plans have already gone ahead to sell Kodak House and to move its HQ to Harrow, with 300 members of staff relocated. A further 350 people will be moved to other Hemel Hempstead offices. On 1 April 1962 under the provision of the New Towns Act 1959, the assets of the Development Corporation were taken over by the Commission for the New Town. Finally the housing was transferred to the local authority in 1978, but community assets such as car parks and the Water Gardens, which should have followed, were not transferred until the early 1990s. When local government reorganisation took place in 1974 the seat of the new Dacorum District Council was naturally in Hemel Hempstead. In addition to the Development Corporation and local authority housing, private development was also of importance. Then when the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme came into being, many tenants purchased their homes. A lot of people consequently established ‘roots’ in the area and have retired here. Second and third generations have established close-knit communities. By the 1980s, the market and the linear shopping area in Marlowes were dated and losing trade. The council, after wide public consultation, improved the town centre with a refurbished market and the pedestrianisation of Marlowes. A new shopping mall was added, and this together with out-of-town supermarkets and a Leisure World all contributed to Hemel Hempstead’s growing prosperity. The council also refurbished and modernised the neighbourhood shopping centres.
An extract from from"Hemel Hempstead - A History & Celebration".