Misplaced Pages

#725274

64-835: The Centurion Club is a golf club in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. The club opened in 2013. It has hosted the GolfSixes series in 2017 and 2018 and the Aramco Team Series . The club held the first event of the first LIV Golf Invitational Series in June 2022. The course was designed by Simon Gidman. This article related to a golf club or course in England is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Hertfordshire location article

128-531: A broach at the spire's base, or else free spaces around the tower's summit for decorative elements like pinnacles . The former solution is known as a broach spire . Small or short spires are known as spikes , spirelets , or flèches . This sense of the word spire is attested in English since the 1590s, spir having been used in Middle Low German since the 14th century, a form related to

192-478: A cathedral city and also like Hemel Hempstead, is 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 . 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

256-572: A spirelet or spike on the rooftop of a building. In particular, the spirelets often built atop the crossings of major churches in mediaeval French Gothic architecture are called flèches. On the ridge of the roof on top of the crossing (the intersection of the nave and the transepts ) of a church, flèches were typically light, delicate, timber-framed constructions with a metallic sheath of lead or copper. They are often richly decorated with architectural and sculptural embellishments: tracery , crockets , and miniature buttresses serve to adorn

320-448: A fully exposed structure of arches not unlike the arches of a medieval European crown . The spire itself is supported by buttress structures. A needle-spire is a particularly tall and narrow spire emerging from a tower surrounded by a parapet . In general, the term applies to considerably larger and more refined spires than the name Hertfordshire spike. A Hertfordshire spike is a type of short spire, needle-spire, or flèche ringed with

384-607: 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

448-399: 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. In December 2011, plans were submitted by the then landlords Capital & 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

512-564: 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. 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

576-425: 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 ,

640-523: A new route opened connecting Boxmoor to the Midland Railway at Harpenden . The Harpenden to Hemel Hempstead branch railway — affectionately known as the Nickey Line — crossed the town centre on a long, curved viaduct , eventually serving three local stations in the town at Heath Park Halt , Hemel Hempsted (Midland) and Godwin's Halt. A new Hemel Hempstead Hospital was established at

704-571: A parapet and found on church-towers in the British Isles . The roofs of splay-foot spires open out and flatten off at their base, creating eaves above the tower supporting the spire. A flèche ( French : flèche , lit.   'arrow' ) is a name given to spires in Gothic architecture : in French the word is applied to any spire, but in English it has the technical meaning of

SECTION 10

#1732794066726

768-520: 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 Hillary and Tenzing Roads. This conquest is also celebrated in the name of a pub in Warners End –

832-556: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead ( / ˌ h ɛ m əl ˈ h ɛ m p s t ɪ d / ) is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire , England. It is located 24 miles (39 km) north-west of London ; nearby towns include Watford , St Albans and Berkhamsted . The population at the 2021 census was 95,961. Hemel Hempstead has existed since at least

896-516: 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." 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. 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

960-602: The American colonies in the early 17th century and founded the town of Hempstead, New York in 1644. 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 705 CE. 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

1024-543: 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 . 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 Adeyfield. A major Romano-Celtic temple complex

1088-671: The Midlands 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 the Sparrows Herne Turnpike Road was opened in 1762. In 1793, construction began on the Grand Junction Canal , a major project to provide a freight waterway between the Midlands and

1152-524: The Old English word spir , meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass. The Gothic church spire originated in the 12th century as a simple, four-sided pyramidal structure on top of a church tower. The spire could be constructed of masonry, as at Salisbury Cathedral , or of wood covered with lead, as at Notre-Dame de Paris . Gradually, spires became taller, slimmer, and more complex in form. Triangular sections of masonry, called broaches were added to

1216-631: The Port of London . In 1798, the canal from the Thames reached Two Waters, just south of Hemel Hempstead, and opened fully in 1805. Hemel's position on the commercial transport network was established further in 1837 when the route of the new London 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

1280-568: The " iron horse ". Their campaign was successful and the main line was routed along the River Bulbourne instead of the River 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 at Boxmoor ; Boxmoor and Hemel Hempstead railway station (today's Hemel Hempstead railway station ) opened in 1837. The railways continued to expand and in 1877

1344-581: The "Top of the World". 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 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

SECTION 20

#1732794066726

1408-484: 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. In the 19th century, Hemel Hempstead 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

1472-431: The 2019 Notre-Dame de Paris fire . It will be rebuilt in the same form. A pinnacle is a miniature spire that was used both as a decorative and functional element. In early Gothic, as at Notre-Dame de Paris, stone pinnacles were placed atop flying buttresses , to give them additional weight and stability, and to counterbalance the outward thrust from the rib vaults of the nave. As an ornament, they were used to break up

1536-891: The 8th century and was granted its town charter by Henry VIII in 1539. However, it has expanded and developed in recent decades after being designated as a new town after the end of the Second World War . The settlement was called Henamsted or Hean-Hempsted in Anglo-Saxon times and Hemel-Amstede by the time of William the Conqueror . The name is referred to in the Domesday Book as Hamelamestede, but in later centuries it became Hamelhamsted, and, possibly, Hemlamstede. In Old English , -stead or -stede simply meant "place" (reflected in German Stadt and Dutch stede or stad , meaning "city" or "town"), such as

1600-552: 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. The Jellicoe Water Gardens have been restored, clearing up the overgrown trees, introducing

1664-503: The Plough Roundabout. The new centre includes several outlets for national retailers, including Starbucks and Waterstones . 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,

1728-574: 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 former John Dickinson & Co. mills site, straddling the canal at Apsley, was redeveloped with two retail parks, a Sainsbury's supermarket, three low-rise office blocks, housing, a mooring basin and a Holiday Inn Express hotel, as well as an additional office block. Some buildings have been retained for their historic interest and to provide

1792-471: The architect Christopher Wren designed reinforcing beams which halted the deformation of the structure. Openwork spires were a notable architectural innovation, beginning with the spire at Freiburg Minster , in which the pierced stonework was held together by iron cramps. The openwork spire, represented a radical but logical extension of the Gothic tendency toward a skeletal structure. Crown spires have

1856-465: The bottom of Hillfield Road in 1832. 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 the old town hall on 13 July 1898. During the Second World War ninety high explosive bombs were dropped on

1920-399: 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. The old council buildings and library were closed and replaced with a new development named The Forum , which opened in early 2017. This area is now home to Dacorum Borough Council, the new library, Hertfordshire Police's Safer Neighbourhood Team,

1984-466: 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. Spire Since towers supporting spires are usually square, square-plan spires emerge directly from the tower's walls, but octagonal spires are either built above a pyramidal transition section called

Centurion Club - Misplaced Pages Continue

2048-502: The development would have a major impact on Hemel services and consequently has proven controversial. 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. 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

2112-404: 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

2176-579: The first roundabout off the M1 to symbolise its renewal. A number of businesses have since located into the Maylands area, including Costa Coffee , Lok'nStore and McDonald'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

2240-596: The flèche. The most famous flèche was the Neo-Gothic 19th-century design by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc for the Notre-Dame de Paris , 100 feet (30 meters) tall and richly decorated with sculpture. The original flèche of Notre-Dame was built in the 13th century, and removed in 1786, shortly before the French Revolution . The famous replacement by Viollet-le-Duc with an abundance of sculpture was destroyed in

2304-441: The horizontal lines, such as parapets and the roofs of towers. In later Gothic, they were sometimes often clustered together into forests of vertical ornament. In Gothic architecture , where the spire is most commonly used, and particularly in Gothic cathedrals and churches it symbolised the heavenly aspirations of churches' builders, as well as offering a visual spectacle of extreme height. It also suggested, by its similarity to

2368-450: The ice rink went under refurbishment. The cinema was expanded from eight screens to 17 with one large 281 IMAX 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. The most recent facility, which opened in July 2011, is an extreme sports centre called

2432-562: 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

2496-600: 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,

2560-511: The monastery at Ashridge . The town remained part of the monastery's estates until the Reformation and break-up of Ashridge in 1539 . In the 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

2624-402: 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

Centurion Club - Misplaced Pages Continue

2688-438: 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. Replacement open space

2752-520: 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. This 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

2816-435: The original town on all sides. The original part of Hemel is still known as the "Old Town". 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

2880-591: The population displaced by the London Blitz , since slums and bombsites were being cleared in London. On 4 February 1947, the Government purchased 5,910 acres (23.9 km ) 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

2944-553: 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 into their new houses in February 1950. At this time, work started on building new factories and industrial areas, to avoid

3008-418: The sides, at an angle to the faces of the tower, as at St Columba, Cologne . In the 12th and 13th centuries, more ornament was added to the faces of the spires, particularly gabled dormers over the centres of the faces of the towers, as in the southwest tower of Chartres Cathedral . Additional vertical ornament, in the form of slender pinnacles in pyramid shapes, were often placed around the spires, to express

3072-572: 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 as Hamstead and Berkhamsted . 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 German Himmel and Dutch Hemel , both of which mean 'heaven' or 'sky', so it could be that Hemel Hempstead

3136-505: The town at this time. In 1953, a collection of unusually fine medieval wall paintings dating from between 1470 and 1500 were discovered in a cottage in Piccotts End , a village on the outskirts of Hemel Hempstead. This same building had been converted into the first cottage hospital providing free medical services by Sir Astley Cooper in 1827. In 1581, a group of local people acquired lands – now referred to as Boxmoor – from

3200-488: 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

3264-459: 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 John Dickinson & Co. factories which were used to produce munitions, were the target. 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

SECTION 50

#1732794066726

3328-562: 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, along with Tring and Berkhamsted . The first chairman of that council

3392-532: The transition between the square base and the octagonal spire. The spires of the late 13th century achieved great height; one example was Fribourg Cathedral in Switzerland, where the gabled lantern and spire reached a height of 385 feet (117 meters). In England, a tall needle spire was sometimes constructed at the edge of tower, with pinnacles at the other corners. The western spires of Lichfield Cathedral are an example. Spires were particularly fragile in

3456-536: The valley sides and onto 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 lie Watford and the beginnings of the Greater London conurbation . To the east lies St Albans ,

3520-418: The wind, and a number of English Gothic spires collapsed; notably that of Malmesbury Abbey (1180–1500); Lincoln Cathedral (which had been the tallest in the world) 1349–1549; and Chichester Cathedral (1402–1861). The spire of Salisbury Cathedral , completed in 1320 and 404 feet (123 meters) tall, without the tower, required the addition of buttresses, arches and tie irons to keep it intact. Finally, in 1668

3584-487: 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 2005 Buncefield 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

3648-414: 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

3712-513: 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 (60-metre) 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

3776-591: 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. 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

3840-555: 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. A Tesco superstore was built in 1994 along with a petrol station, which

3904-562: Was in a less-forested area open to the sky, while Berkhamsted (which could mean ' birch ', reflected in the Dutch berk ) was in a forest of birch trees. 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". The town is now known to locals as Hemel. However, before the Second World War locals called it Hempstead. Emigrants from Hemel Hempstead, led by John Carman, settled in

SECTION 60

#1732794066726

3968-484: Was later expanded into a Tesco Extra. It was the first to be built with natural light let in. The Jarman Leisure Centre complex opened on 25 August 1995, originally managed by The Rank Organisation until 2007 and currently managed by the Tesco Pension Fund. The current 17-screen Cineworld is its flagship attraction. In addition to the cinema, there is an ice rink , several restaurants and a gym. When it

4032-489: Was opened as Leisure World at a cost of £22 million, the cinema originally featured eight screens and was operated by Odeon Cinemas , and later by Empire Cinemas until 2016. 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, which was an upstairs bowls facility with seven rinks, restaurants,

4096-494: Was unearthed at Wood Lane End in Maylands in 1966. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Hemel Hempstead was an agricultural market town . Wealthy landowners built a few large country houses in the locality, including The Bury , built in 1790, and Gadebridge House , erected by the noted surgeon and anatomist Sir Astley Cooper in 1811. As the Industrial Revolution gained momentum, commercial travel between

#725274