| Hemel Hempstead | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
  Hemel Hempstead Location withinHertfordshire | |
| Population | 95,961 (2021 Census)[1] |
| OS grid reference | TL 056 071 |
| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| 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 |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
Hemel Hempstead (/ˌhɛməlˈhɛmpstɪd/) is atown in theDacorum district inHertfordshire, England. It is located 24 miles (39 km) north-west ofLondon; nearby towns and cities includeWatford,St Albans andBerkhamsted. Thepopulation at the2021 census was 95,961.[1]
Hemel Hempstead has existed since at least the 8th century and was granted itstown charter byHenry VIII in 1539. It has expanded and developed in recent decades after being designated as anew town after the end of theSecond World War.
Thesettlement was called Henamsted or Hean-Hempsted inAnglo-Saxon times and Hemel-Amstede by the time ofWilliam the Conqueror.[2] The name is referred to in theDomesday Book as Hamelamestede,[3] but in later centuries it became Hamelhamsted, and, possibly, Hemlamstede.[4] InOld English,-stead or-stede simply meant "place" (reflected in GermanStadt and Dutchstede orstad, meaning "city" or "town"), such as the site of a building or pasture, as in clearing in the woods. This suffix is used in the names of other English places, such asHamstead andBerkhamsted.[5]
One theory suggests that a previous name for the settlement became corrupted to something similar to Hempstead, and that Hemel originated as a way of specifying Hemel Hempstead, as opposed to nearby Berkhamsted. Hemel is reflected in the GermanHimmel and DutchHemel, both of which mean 'heaven' or 'sky', so it could be that Hemel Hempstead was in a less-forested area open to the sky, while Berkhamsted (which could mean 'birch', reflected in the Dutchberk) was in a forest of birch trees.[6] This is however speculation and unsupported by place name dictionaries.
Another suggestion is that Hemel came from Haemele, the name of the district in the 8th century, and was most likely either the name of the landowner or meant "broken country".[7][8]
Emigrants from Hemel Hempstead, led by John Carman, settled in theAmerican colonies in the early 17th century and founded the town ofHempstead, New York in 1644.[9]
The first recorded mention of the town is the grant of land atHamaele byOffa, King of Essex, to the SaxonBishop of London in 705 AD. Hemel Hempstead on its present site is mentioned in theDomesday Book of 1086 as avill, Hamelhamstede, with about 100 inhabitants. The parish church ofSt Mary's was built in 1140, and is recognised as one of the finestNormanparish churches in the county.[10] The church features an unusual 200-foot-tall (60-metre)spire, added in the 12th century, one of Europe's tallest.[10]
After theNorman Conquest,Robert, Count of Mortain, the elder half-brother ofWilliam the Conqueror, was granted lands associated withBerkhamsted Castle which included Hemel Hempstead. The estates passed through several hands over the next few centuries includingThomas Becket in 1162. Hemel Hempstead was in theDomesday Book’shundred of Danais (Daneys, i.e. Danish), which by 1200 had been combined with the hundred of Tring to form the hundred of Dacorum.[11] This maintained its court into the 19th century. In 1290,King John's grandson, theEarl of Cornwall, gave themanor to the religious order of theBonhommes when he endowed the monastery atAshridge.[12]
The town remained part of the monastery's estates until theReformation, andbreak-up of Ashridge in 1539. In the same year, the town was granted aroyal charter byHenry VIII to become abailiwick with the right to hold a Thursday market and a fair onCorpus Christi Day. The first bailiff of Hemel Hempstead was William Stephyns (29 December 1539). Henry VIII andAnne Boleyn are reputed to have stayed in the town at this time.[13]
In 1953, a collection of unusually finemedieval wall paintings dating from between 1470 and 1500 were discovered in a cottage inPiccotts End, a village on the outskirts of Hemel Hempstead. This same building had been converted into the firstcottage hospital providing free medical services by SirAstley Cooper in 1827.[14]
In 1581, a group of local people acquired lands – now referred to asBoxmoor – from theEarl of Leicester to prevent theirenclosure. These were transferred to trustees in 1594. These have been used for public grazing and they are administered by theBox Moor Trust.[15]
Remains ofRoman villa farming settlements have been found atBoxmoor andGadebridge which span the entire period ofRoman Britain. A well-preserved Roman burial mound is located in Adeyfield.[16] A major Romano-Celtic temple complex was unearthed at Wood Lane End in Maylands in 1966.[17]
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Hemel Hempstead was an agriculturalmarket town. Wealthy landowners built a few largecountry houses in the locality, includingThe Bury, built in 1790, andGadebridge House, erected by the notedsurgeon andanatomistSir Astley Cooper in 1811.[18]
As theIndustrial Revolution gained momentum, commercial travel between theMidlands and London increased greatly. Hemel Hempstead was located on a direct route between these areas of industry and commerce and this made it a natural waypoint for trade and travel between the two. Initially theSparrows Herne Turnpike Road was opened in 1762.[19]
In 1793, construction began on theGrand Junction Canal, a major project to provide a freight waterway between the Midlands and thePort of London. In 1798, the canal from the Thames reached Two Waters, just south of Hemel Hempstead, and opened fully in 1805.[20]
Hemel's position on the commercial transport network was established further in 1837 when the route of the newLondon and Birmingham Railway reached the town. The line's construction had been delayed for several years by vigorous lobbying by a number of powerful local landowners, including Sir Astley Cooper of Gadebridge House, who were all keen to protect their estates from invasion by the "iron horse". Their campaign was successful and the main line was routed along theRiver Bulbourne instead of theRiver Gade, skirting around the edge of Hemel Hempstead. As a result, the railway station serving Hemel Hempstead was built one mile outside the town centre atBoxmoor;Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead railway station (today'sHemel Hempstead railway station) opened in 1837.[21] The railways continued to expand and in 1877 a new route opened connecting Boxmoor to theMidland Railway atHarpenden. The Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead branch railway — affectionately known as theNickey Line — crossed the town centre on a long, curvedviaduct, eventually serving three local stations in the town atHeath Park Halt,Hemel Hempsted (Midland) and Godwin's Halt.[22] A newHemel Hempstead Hospital was established at the bottom of Hillfield Road in 1832.[23]
Despite the incursion of various forms of transport, Hemel 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. Hemel steadily expanded, but only became a borough, with its headquarters at theold town hall on 13 July 1898.[24]
During theSecond World War ninety high explosive bombs were dropped on the town by theLuftwaffe. The most notorious incident was on 10 May 1942 when a stick of bombs demolished houses at Nash Mills killing eight people. The nearbyJohn Dickinson & Co. factories which were used to produce munitions, were the target.[25]
After theSecond World War, in 1946, the government designated Hemel Hempstead as the site of one of its proposednew towns designed to house the population displaced by theLondon Blitz, since slums and bombsites were being cleared in London.[26] 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 with new developments enveloping the original town on all sides. The original part of Hemel is still known as the "Old Town".[27]
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 theCommission 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.[28]
The initial plans for the New Town were drawn up by architectGeoffrey 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 thatthe roundabout was opened as it was originally designed. It was quickly christened as 'The Magic Roundabout' by locals, echoing the name ofthe 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 into their new houses in February 1950.[29]
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 ofEverest, such as Hillary and Tenzing Roads. This conquest is also celebrated in the name of a pub in Warners End – the "Top of the World".[30]
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 Jellicoe, formed by ponding back theRiver 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. TheM1 motorway opened to the east in 1959, and a new road connecting it to the town was opened.[31]
By 1962, the redevelopment of the new town as originally envisaged was largely complete, though further expansion plans were then put forward. The nearbyUnited States Air Force base ofBovingdon, 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 ofWest 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 byFrankie Vaughan,Benny Hill,Terry-Thomas, and the new cinema was opened by Hollywood starLauren Bacall. The last of the originally-planned neighbourhoods, Grovehill, began construction in 1967. However, further neighbourhoods of Woodhall Farm andFields End were later built as part of the extended plans.[32]
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 smallercul-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 featuresmodernist architecture with many unusual and experimental designs forhousing. 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.[33]
In 1974, the government abolished the Borough of Hemel Hempstead and the town was incorporated into Dacorum District, along withTring andBerkhamsted. 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.[34]
Neighbouring areas | |
|---|---|
Hemel Hempstead developed in a shallowchalkland valley at theconfluence of the riversGade andBulbourne, 27 miles (43 km) northwest of central London. The New Town expansion took place up the valley sides and onto the plateau above the original Old Town.
To the north and west lie mixed farm andwoodland with scattered villages, part of theChiltern Hills. To the west liesBerkhamsted. TheRiver Bulbourne flows along the south-western edge of the town throughBoxmoor. To the south lieWatford and the beginnings of theGreater Londonconurbation. To the east liesSt Albans, acathedral city and also like Hemel Hempstead, is part of theLondon commuter belt. Possibly the best view of Hemel Hempstead in its physical setting is from the top ofRoughdown Common, a chalk hill to the south of the town, atTL 049 055.
The grand design for Hemel Hempstead new town saw each new district centred around a parade or square of shops called a neighbourhood centre. Other districts existed before the new town as suburbs, villages and industrial centres, and were incorporated into the town.
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.[36] 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 slope next to it. Both areas were removed to make way for the Snow Centre which opened in 2009. ATesco superstore was built in 1994 along with a petrol station, which was later expanded into a Tesco Extra. It was the first to be built with natural light let in.[37] The Jarman Leisure Centre complex opened on 25 August 1995, originally managed byThe Rank Organisation until 2007 and currently managed by the Tesco Pension Fund. The current 17-screenCineworld is its flagship attraction. In addition to the cinema, there is anice rink, several restaurants and a gym.
When it was opened as Leisure World at a cost of £22 million, the cinema originally featured eight screens and was operated byOdeon Cinemas, and later byEmpire Cinemas until 2016. The complex also included the upstairs Toddlerworld play area, the Aquasplash water park, Hotshots, which was a 30-laneten pin bowling facility with a bar, Jarman Park Bowls Club, which was an upstairsbowls facility with seven rinks, restaurants, a large arcade in the middle of the building, snooker and pool tables, a discothèque called Visage (subsequently Lava), a nightclub and a themed bar.[38][39]
In December 2011, plans were submitted by the then landlordsCapital & Regional to redevelop the site. It proposed a collection of family-friendly cafes and restaurants, with Aquasplash closing down.
The cinema continued to operate while the ice rink went under refurbishment. The cinema was expanded from eight screens to 17 with one large 281IMAX auditorium.
A nearby athletics track, opened in 1996, is managed by the sports group Sportspace, with a small adjacent children's play park. The track is used by local schools for sports days.[40]
The most recent facility, which opened in July 2011, is an extreme sports centre called the 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.
The formerJohn Dickinson & Co. mills site, straddling the canal at Apsley, was redeveloped with two retail parks, aSainsbury's supermarket, three low-rise office blocks, housing, a mooring basin and aHoliday Inn Express hotel, as well as an additional office block. Some buildings have been retained for their historic interest and to provide a home for the Apsley Paper Museum.
The now disused mill site at Nash Mills was also redeveloped to build housing and community facilities. It retains some historic buildings.
An indoor shopping mall was developed adjacent to the south end of the Marlowes retail area in 1990. 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, includingStarbucks andWaterstones. These two developments have moved the 'centre of gravity' of the retail centre away from the north end of Marlowes, which has become an area for secondary outlets. Further extensive redevelopment of the northern end of Marlowes was given the green light in 2007 and has since been completed.
In late 2014, the council began to improve the appearance of the original new-town's centre. The Old Town was refurbished with new paving, signage and landscaping.[41] The old council buildings and library were closed and replaced with a new development namedThe Forum, which opened in early 2017. This area is now home to 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. Several hundred new homes have been built alongside this new development and a riverside walk/cycle way established. The abandoned market square is set to be more leisure facilities.[42]
The Jellicoe Water Gardens have been restored, clearing up the overgrown trees, introducing a new play area and an area for picnics and gardening, as well as a community centre for volunteers, learning organisations and schools, and the Friends of the Jellicoe Water Gardens. There is also a new terrace for the flower garden.[43]
The pedestrianised high street has been redeveloped, with a new play area and equipment around the street, such as giant coloured balls, slides, a tightrope and trampolines. A sculpture showcasing the work of Geoffrey Jellicoe has been installed on top of a new pillar.
Isle of Man-based residential developer Dandara redeveloped the old Kodak headquarters into a block of flats, with a new footbridge to the Riverside shopping precinct.
Since the 2005Buncefield fire, the former Maylands Avenue factory estate, which was badly affected by the fire, has been rebranded as Maylands Business Park. A 40-tonne sculpture by Jose Zavala, called Phoenix Gateway, has been placed on the first roundabout off the M1 to symbolise its renewal. A number of businesses have since located into the Maylands area, includingCosta Coffee,Lok'nStore andMcDonald's.
St Albans District council plans to meet its new homes building target by building on land to the east of Hemel Hempstead near the M1 motorway. This would comprise 2,500 new homes. The land is within St Albans planning jurisdiction but the development would have a major impact on Hemel services and consequently has proven controversial.[44]
Land to the west of Chaulden and Warners End has been removed from the Green Belt designation and is due for development with 900 new homes.[45]
Historically, the area was agricultural and was noted for its rich cereal production. The agricultural journalistWilliam 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."[46] 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.[47]
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.[48]
In the 19th century, Hemel Hempstead was a notedbrickmaking, paper manufacturing andstraw-plaiting centre. In later 19th and early 20th centuries, Hemel was also a notedwatercress growing area, supplying 1/16 of the country's national demand – following development of the New Town, the watercress growing moved to nearbyBerkhamsted andTring. 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 firstgasworks. It became the Hemel Hempstead Engineering Company and stayed in business until theSecond 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 localBoxmoor pub commemorates the event.
In 1803 the first automaticpapermaking 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 hugeJohn Dickinson & Co. mills in the 20th.
A traditional employer in the area was alsoBrock's, manufacturer offireworks. 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 theHemel Hempstead Evening Post-Echo. This comprised two evening papers – theEvening Echo and theEvening Post – and was based at a modern headquarters in Mark Road which had previously been used as ahot 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 theEvening Echo andEvening Post won design awards during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but it was theEvening Echo that took the major writing honours, with John Marquis being voted Provincial Journalist of the Year in 1974 andMelanie 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:
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Hemel Hempstead has a mixture of heavy and light engineering companies and has attracted a significant number of information technology andtelecommunications 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, particularlyWatford andSt Albans.
Significant firms with a local presence include:
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In 1798, the construction of theGrand Junction Canal reached Hemel Hempstead. Now part of theGrand Union Canal, it is a popular route fornarrowboat pleasure craft and is maintained by theCanal & River Trust.
Hemel Hempstead railway station is located 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the town centre inBoxmoor. It is on theWest Coast Main Line and there are frequent services between LondonEuston and theMidlands, operated byLondon Northwestern Railway, with additional direct services toSouth Croydon via theWest London Line operated bySouthern.
A railway station previously existed in the town centre, known asthe Midland railway station, on the formerNickey Line toHarpenden. This station closed to passenger services in 1947, along with the line, and it was demolished in 1969.[49]
Hemel Hempstead bus station is situated in Waterhouse Street. In 2013, Dacorum Council announced that the bus station would be demolished and replaced with a new bus interchange next to the Marlowes Shopping Centre on Bridge Street. The project was completed in September 2014.[50][needs update]
In the 1990s, theA41 dual carriageway was built with a link to the town across the upland chalk plateau. Hemel Hempstead is linked to theM1 motorway to the east and theM25 motorway to the south.
Hemel Hempstead Town Football Club dates back to 1885 and now play in theNational League South. NicknamedThe Tudors, they play at Vauxhall Road in theAdeyfield area of the town; this was the site of the former sports club for the employees ofBrocks Fireworks. There are also many amateur sides throughout the town.
Inrugby league,Hemel Stags, founded in 1981, were admitted to the third-tierRFL League 1 in the 2013 season. However, in 2019 the club was purchased by a Canadian consortium and relocated toOttawa, being readmitted to the league for the 2021 season under the nameOttawa Aces.
Hemel Hempstead (Camelot) Rugby Club is arugby union club founded in 1919. The club plays inLondon 2 North West, a seventh-tier league in theEnglish rugby union league system. The club's home ground is atChaulden Lane, Chaulden.[51]
Hemel Storm is a basketball team that competes in the second-tierNational Basketball League (England) Division 1. They play their home games at Sportspace.
Herts Baseball Club has been based in Grovehill since 1997. It has two purpose-built baseball diamonds, with permanent fencing. Herts is one of the biggest clubs in the country and has won national titles at both adult and junior levels.[52]
Hemel Hempstead TownCricket Club, founded in 1850, has a pitch and practice facilities at Heath Park, near the town centre. TheBoxmoor Cricket Club, founded in 1857, has a ground nearby on Blackbirds Moor. The town is also home to Leverstock Green Cricket Club.
Hemel Hempstead has an indoor snow centre, areal snow indoor sports venue that opened in April 2009 and which offers a range of indoor snow-based sports and activities.
Dacorum & Tring Athletic Club is based at Jarman Park, while Hemel HempsteadBowls Club has its greens atGadebridge Park.
Gadebridge Park also has an outdoorskatepark that was designed and supplied by localextreme 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 atAbbot'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, onBox Moor Trust land. There was also a 9-hole course (Boxmoor) on Box Lane but this closed in July 2011 and is now a nature reserve being part of the Box Moor Trust estate.
Wildcards Roller Hockey Club was established in 1996 and is a non-profit organisation run by volunteers to enable people to playInline 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 facility left in Jarman Park is 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[citation needed]. The town also hosts the FIFOLITS Swimming club and the Dacorum Borough Swimming Squad, which brings together the best swimmers in the borough.[citation needed]
Competitive cycling events such as theTour of Britain andThe Women's Tour have occasionally had stages that have gone through Hemel.[53]
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There are seven state-maintained secondary schools in the town:
There are also threeindependent (fee-paying) schools in, or adjacent, to the town:
In addition there is aWest Herts College Campus based in the town centre.
In 2006, the local education authority judged that there were too many primary school places in the town and published proposals to reduce them.[54] The options involved school amalgamations and closures. A list of schools taking children of primary age is atprimary schools in Dacorum.
The town of Hemel Hempstead forms the bulk ofHemel Hempstead parliamentary constituency, which also includes some outlying villages.
In the 21 general elections since the new town was created, aConservative MP has been returned 17 times and aLabour MP four times. The current MP is Labour'sDavid Taylor, who was elected for the first time in the2024 General Election.
Hemel Hempstead has two tiers of local government, at district and county level:Dacorum Borough Council andHertfordshire County Council. There is no parish or town council in Hemel Hempstead, which has been anunparished area since 1974.
| Hemel Hempstead | |
|---|---|
| Bailiwick (1539–1898) Municipal Borough (1898–1974) | |
.jpg) Town Hall, High Street, Hemel Hempstead | |
| Population | |
| • 1901 | 11,264 |
| • 1971 | 68,395[55] |
| History | |
| • Created | 29 December 1539 (Bailiwick) 8 June 1898 (Borough) |
| • Abolished | 31 March 1974 |
| • Succeeded by | Dacorum |
| • HQ | Town Hall, High Street, Hemel Hempstead |
| Contained within | |
| • County Council | Hertfordshire |
Historically, the parish of Hemel Hempstead was in thehundred ofDacorum.[56] On 29 December 1539,Henry VIII granted the town a charter of incorporation under the title "the Bailiff and Inhabitants", making the town abailiwick, which was given the right to hold a market, a fair and acourt of piepowders.[57]
In 1835 Hemel Hempstead became the centre of apoor law union, and a workhouse was built on Redbourn Road.[58]
The town's status in having a bailiff and corporation was relatively unusual. It was sometimes described as aborough, but it was not counted as a borough for the purposes of theMunicipal Corporations Act 1835, nor theMunicipal Corporations Act 1883. As such, the old corporation did not become amunicipal borough, and it did not assume the powers and responsibilities which were gradually given to municipal boroughs after 1835. Instead, local government functions passed to theboard of guardians of the poor law union, which also became arural sanitary district in 1872. TheLocal Government Act 1894 converted rural sanitary districts intorural districts and established elected parish councils. From December 1894, Hemel Hempstead therefore found itself governed by theHemel Hempstead Rural District Council, Hemel Hempstead Parish Council, and the still-operating but largely powerless bailiff and corporation. One consequence of the town's anomalous status was that it had the last operatingcourt of piepowders in England, with the final session held on 2 December 1897.[57]
The town petitionedQueen Victoria to allow it to become a municipal borough, and a borough charter was granted on 8 June 1898.[59] The old corporation and parish council were both dissolved, replaced by a new municipal borough council. The borough also became independent from the Hemel Hempstead Rural District. The first mayor of the borough wasSir Astley Paston Paston-Cooper ofGadebridge House.[60]
For most of its existence, Hemel Hempstead Borough Council was based at the Town Hall on High Street, which had been built in 1851 for the old corporation.[61] A new Town Hall was built for the borough council in 1966 on Marlowes, between the old town and the new town centre.[62]
Hemel Hempstead Municipal Borough was abolished under theLocal Government Act 1972, becoming part of thedistrict ofDacorum (named after the ancient hundred which covered a similar area) on 1 April 1974. Nosuccessor parish was created for the town, and so it became an unparished area. Dacorum District Council used the 1966 Hemel Hempstead Town Hall on Marlowes as its headquarters, renaming it Dacorum Civic Centre. In recognition of Hemel Hempstead's former borough status, Dacorum district was awarded borough status on 10 October 1984.[63]
Hemel Hempstead, as part of the Borough of Dacorum, istwinned withNeu-Isenburg in Germany.
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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 centralroundabout (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, free-standingmulti-storey car park in Britain.[64]
The new town centre is laid out alongside landscaped gardens and water features formed from theRiver Gade known as theWatergardens, designed byG. A. Jellicoe. The Watergardens are home to many ducks, which have been known to cause delays on the surrounding roads. The main shopping street, Marlowes, was pedestrianised in the early 1990s.
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 earlierrailway viaduct carrying the Hemel toHarpenden railway, known as theNickey Line. When the new town was constructed, this part of the railway was no longer in use and theviaduct was demolished. The Nickey Line is now used as a leisure route by walkers. The office building, occupied byBP, was designed to create a similar skyline and effect to the viaduct. In the early 1980s, it was discovered that the building was subsiding dangerously. As a result, it was vacated and demolished. Adjacent to the 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.
A few metres away, overlooking the 'Magic Roundabout', is Hemel's tallest structure, the 20-storeyKodak building. This originally consisted of 18 office floors, two plantroom floors and a basement. It also had a two-storey annex containing a restaurant, cinema and gym. Built as the Kodak Company's UK HQ, the tower was vacated by the company in 2005, though it was temporarily reoccupied in 2006 after the Buncefield explosion destroyed Kodak's other Hemel offices. It has since been converted into flats.
TheHeathrow Airport holding area known as theBovingdon stack lies just west of the town. At peak times on a clear day, several circling aircraft can be seen in the sky at any one time.
The national headquarters of theBoys' Brigade is located at Felden Lodge, near Hemel.
Dacorum Heritage, a local historyadvocacy group, has proposals to convert the 18th-century house atThe Bury into a museum and art gallery to display a collection of archaeological and historical artefacts from the surrounding area. The project is currently awaiting necessary funding and planning permission to proceed.[65][66]
The new town centre contains several sculptures by notable artists from the 1950s, including a 1955 stone mural by sculptorAlfred Gerrard entitledStages in the Development of Man. There is also theRock & Rollers sculpture created by the French artist Hubert Yencess, which originally stood outside Bank Court but has been moved to the water gardens, and a fountain calledWater Play.
Themosaic tiled map of the Hemel Hempstead district was designed by the artistRowland Emett and is located on the side of the tiered car park in the Marlowes. Erected in 1960, it is grade-2 listed building.[67]
A concrete and glass rainbow sculpture,Residents' Rainbow, by Californian artistColin Lambert, was installed in the Marlowes in 1993. The ceramic rainbow tiling was replaced with a glass mosaic by artistGary Drostle in 2010.[68] Nearby is a 3D map of 1940s Hemel.
In 2008, an abstract stone sculpture by Timothy Shutter, entitledA Point for Reflection, was unveiled outside the Riverside Shopping Centre.[69][70]
A series of 33-feet-high blue steel arches, called thePhoenix Gateway, is located on the roundabout closest to the Hemel Hempstead junction of theM1 motorway. The concept behind the installation was to help regenerate the town after theBuncefield fire with a striking piece of commercial art. It was funded by theEast of England Development Agency.[71]
In December 2005, there was aseries of explosions and fires atBuncefield oil depot.[72]
This was widely reported as the largest explosion in peacetime Europe by many media organisations, although verification of the claim is scant.[73][74][75]
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Notable people associated with the town in order of birth date:
The Dacorum Pavilion was a theatre and performance venue and a 1960s structure which was sited on the Marlowes, just in front of the library.[91] It was an entertainments venue that hosted emerging and internationally famous acts between the 1960s and 1990s. The venue was 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.[92][93] The Forum, Hemel Hempstead's new council, library and voluntary services hub built on the former Pavilion site opened its doors to the public on Monday 16 January 2013.[94]
Originally known as The Hemel Hempstead Operatic and Dramatic Society, The Hemel Hempstead Theatre Company has operated since 1925. Over the years the company has performed in a number of locations, including the Luxor Cinemas in the Marlowes and St. John's Hall at 72 St. John's Road, which had been built in 1930 as extension of the nearbySt. John's Church. The first-ever theatrical performance at St. John's Hall was given by the Theatre Company in April 1932. HHTC purchased the St. John's Hall building in 1997 and renamed it the Boxmoor Playhouse. Holding up to 200 seats, the Playhouse is the largest theatre in Hemel Hempstead. Each year the Company stages a variety of productions, including plays, musicals and pantomimes. Due to the flexibility of the space, the company also holds social events such as quiz nights, creative workshops and cabaret evenings.[95][96][97][98]
Hemel Hempstead is within theBBC London andITV London region. Television signals are received from theCrystal Palace TV transmitter[99] and the local relay transmitter.[100]
Local radio stations areBBC Three Counties Radio on 92.1 FM,Heart Hertfordshire on 96.6 FM and Radio Dacorum, a community-based radio station.[101]
TheHemel Hempstead Gazette,Hemel Today andHerald Express are the town's local newspapers.
Hemel also was home to one of the first community-based television stations, West Herts TV, which later became Channel 10.
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