Hemel Hempstead Old Town

About Hemel Hempstead   (bookmark this page, there is more to come with additional photo material)

Hemel Hempstead has a population of around 89,000 Developed after World War II as a new town, it has existed as a settlement since the 8th century. It is part of the district of Dacorum and the Hemel Hempstead constituency.
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 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 by pass called the A41 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. 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 area. To the east lies St Albans, a historic cathedral and market town and now like Hemel Hempstead, part of the London commuter belt.

The name 'hemel Hempstead' was originally 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.

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".

Pre-World War II residents knew it affectionately as "Hempstead" whereas the majority of present day residents simply call it "Hemel".

The modern Dutch place names of Haamstede and Heemstede probably have a similar root which means homestead.

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 London Blitz displaced population of London where slums and bombsites were being cleared. 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" click here for further information on The Old Town.

Its geographical position, between London and the Midlands, acted again in the 1960s when the M1 motorway was routed just to the east of the town. This gave it a central position on the country's motorway network.

The town may have given its name to the town of Hempstead, New York. Immigrants from Hemel Hemstead migrated to the area which is now Hempstead, New York, including the surrounding areas such as Roosevelt, in the late 17th century
Hemel Hempstead is mostly well known for its "Magic Roundabout" Roundabout" where traffic from six different routes meet.
Traffic is able to circulate in both directions around what appears to be a main central roundabout (which it once was) 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 Hempstead 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 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.

For a long time 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 Hempstead 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 was 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 hundred metres away, overlooking the 'Magic Roundabout', is Hemel Hempstead's tallest building; the 19-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 Kodaks other Hemel offices. It is currently being converted into 430 apartments

Areas of Hemel Hempstead

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 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.
    * Cornerhall - an estate adjacent to the plough roundabout frequently thought to be part of Apsley. Bounded by Lawn lane and St Albans Hill.
    * Cupid's 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.

1960s housing developed in the later stages of Hemel Hempstead New Town construction. Aycliffe Drive , Grovehill

    * 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 in 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.

Recent developments in Hemel Hempstead

The Hemel Hempstead Jarman Park Leisure centre or Leisureworld, was opened in 1994, containing eight film screens run by Empire Cinemas (previously Odeon Cinemas), ten pin bowling (Hotshots), an ice rink (Planet Ice, originally Silver Blades), a water park (Aqua Splash) and night clubs (Lava and Ignite).
The Aqua splash at Leisureworld is part of the Arena group.
This whole development, and those of the adjacent McDonalds restaurant and Tesco superstore, were built on land originally donated to the town for recreational purposes. Land has also been reserved for a hotel, but to date (April 2009) this remains derelict. Replacement openspace was created to the east of the town, near Leverstock Green, Longdean Park and Nash Mills.

The former John Dickinson Stationery mills site, straddling the canal at Apsley, was redeveloped with two Retail parks, a Sainsbury 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 projected Paper Museum.

An indoor shopping mall was developed adjacent to the south end of the Marlowes retail area, 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 is currently redeveloping the former Kodak headquarters into a residential development to be known as "Image".

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 renewall.

The now disused mill site at Nash Mills is to be redeveloped. Proposals have been publicised (2008) to build housing and community facilities, retain some historic buildings and use various watercourses as amenities.

Schools

There are six state maintained secondary schools in Hemel

    * 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 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:

    * Lockers Park School, a day and boarding school for boys aged 7–13
    * Abbot's Hill School, a day and boarding school for girls
    * 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. The options involved school amalgamations and closures.

Local sports and activities

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]

Several of the various codes of "football" are played. 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.

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 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.

The Hemel Ski Centre was replaced in 2008/09 by The Snow Centre, a real snow indoor sports venue which, opened in April 2009, has had previews for invited guests in early May

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.

Significant historical local firms and companies:

    * Addressograph, address labels & 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.
    * Brocks Fireworks, Firework manufacturer
    * Crosfield Electronics - digital imaging systems, now part of Fujifilm
    * John Dickinson and Sons, paper manufacturing
    * Lucas Aerospace - relocated (as TRW Aeronautical Systems) to Pitstone in 2002.
    * Kodak.
    * British Petroleum.

In more recent times 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, 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
    * Steria (formerly Bull (formerly Honeywell)), computers
    * 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 The subsidiary of the n.1 Italian Brand in Olive Oil
    * Fujifilm UK HQ electronics and photography
    * Hewitt Associates, Human resources (personnel) out-sourcing organisation
    * HSBC Bank, Telephone services & Head Office Operations
    * Kent Brushes Or, to use their full title, G B Kent & Sons Ltd - Established in 1777 & has been manufacturing brushes in Apsley for most of that time.
    * Keystone Distribution McDonalds' distribution company
    * Kodak, photography - (In March 2005 Kodak announced that it would vacate its central headquarters tower block in Hemel, and will be located on 3Com Campus in Hemel)
    * 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, IT services
    * Unisys, computers
    * Waverly TBS, wine and spirits wholesale subsidiary of Scottish & Newcastle
    * Xerox Office Supplies, Document supplies, paper development
    * SATYAM Computers

Just east of the town is the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal (HOST), known locally as the Buncefield complex. This was a major hub on the UK oil pipeline network (UKOP) with pipelines to Humberside, Merseyside, and Heathrow and Gatwick airports radiating from here. This was destroyed by a huge explosion on 11 December 2005

This was one of the largest explosions ever to occur in the UK, and the incident has been described as the biggest of its kind in peacetime Europe. The Maylands Avenue industrial estate was severely damaged and much of it needed to be demolished. Nearby residential districts of Adeyfield, Woodhall Farm and Leverstock Green were also badly damaged and around 300 people made temporarily homeless. There were 41 people with minor injuries and two were seriously hurt. The only reason that no one was killed was because the explosion occurred before dawn on a Sunday.

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 recent conquest of Everest, such as Hilary and Tenzing Road.

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. Dacorum 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 eg fields, birds, rivers, poets, explorers, leaders, etc.