South Mimms

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".

HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, in Hertfordshire, is probably best known as a New Town, being built after the Second World War, but this overlooks its long and historic past. Over the years there have been a variety of spellings of the name Hemel Hempstead. For instance, Hamaele is the Saxon name for the district of the early settlement, but by the 13th century the town was known as Hamelhamstede. Later, by the 17th century, the name had evolved as Hemelhemsted. From this time on, the name was sometimes shortened to Hemel or Hempstead. Even today, the town is often referred to as Hemel. The town now forms part of the Borough of Dacorum, a name of Danish origin. Geographically Hemel Hempstead has a pleasant situation. It lies in the valleys of the Rivers Gade and Bulbourne, on the ridges of the Chiltern Hills only 25 miles from London. The town possesses two attractive and extensive open spaces; to the west of the old High Street lies Gadebridge Park, bought by the former Hemel Hempstead Borough Council in 1952; the second, further west, is Box Moor. Hemel Hempstead was, and indeed still is, geographically divided into three distinct parts. To the north is the old town of Hemel Hempstead, to the west lies Boxmoor, which derives its name from the moor, with Apsley established to the south. After the New Town was built, the three parts became closely linked by the neighbourhoods of Chaulden, Adeyfield, Bennets End, Gadebridge, Warners End, Grovehill and Highfield, together with the villages of Piccotts End and Leverstock Green. Yet to discover how all this came about we have to trace the town back to when it was a settlement in Roman times.
An extract from from"Hemel Hempstead - A History & Celebration".

When the New Town was being built many new streets were named after people linked with the town: King Harry Street, Waterhouse Street and Combe Street, are adjacent to Marlowes where the first new shops were constructed.
An extract from from"Hemel Hempstead - A History & Celebration".

The early history of St Mary’s is difficult to trace as all documents relating to the parish were destroyed at the time of the Reformation. In a way it is a mystery how such a sumptuous church as St Mary’s came to be built in the vill of Hemel Hempstead, especially as no Saxon church appears to have preceded it. According to some sources Reginald de Dunstanville was the builder of the church but this is probably not correct. There appears to be confusion between the role of the builder and that of the patron. In 1140, the same year that the building of the church commenced, King Stephen bestowed the earldom of Cornwall on Reginald de Dunstanville, a natural son of Henry I, and granted him Berkhamsted Castle. It is therefore very likely that Reginald de Dunstanville was the patron.
An extract from from"Hemel Hempstead - A History & Celebration".