78-517: Chaulden is a residential district in Hemel Hempstead , Hertfordshire , England located west of the town centre and bordering on open countryside. It was an early development in the construction of Hemel Hempstead new town, commenced in 1953 and has its own neighbourhood shopping centre. The name Chaulden can be traced back to 1523 as a local field name and as meaning a chalky valley. A country house and estate called Chaulden House occupied
156-478: 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
234-798: A disturbance or fire. Birches are early tree species to become established in primary successions , and can become a threat to heathland if the seedlings and saplings are not suppressed by grazing or periodic burning. Birches are generally lowland species, but some species, such as Betula nana , have a montane distribution. In the British Isles , there is some difference between the environments of Betula pendula and Betula pubescens , and some hybridization, though both are "opportunists in steady-state woodland systems". Mycorrhizal fungi , including sheathing (ecto)mycorrhizas, are found in some cases to be beneficial to tree growth. A large number of lepidopteran insects feed on birch foliage. Because of
312-400: A half-anther. Anther cells open longitudinally. The pistillate segments are erect or pendulous, and solitary, terminal on the two-leaved lateral spur-like branchlets of the year. The pistillate scales are oblong-ovate, three-lobed, pale yellow-green often tinged with red, becoming brown at maturity. These scales bear two or three fertile flowers, each flower consisting of a naked ovary. The ovary
390-607: 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
468-399: 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
546-564: 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
624-425: 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 ,
702-523: 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
780-781: A parade of shops set in a crescent around a car park – was completed in 1958. A nearby pub, the Tudor Rose, also built by the New Town corporation, celebrates Hemel Hempstead's link to the Tudor King Henry VIII , who gave the town its charter. The population of the appropriate Dacorum Ward (Chaulden and Warner's End) at the 2011 Census was 9,146. Hemel Hempstead (Camelot) Rugby Club play on Chaulden Meadow off Chaulden Lane. 51°45′01″N 0°30′11″W / 51.75028°N 0.50306°W / 51.75028; -0.50306 This Hertfordshire location article
858-573: A slightly weeping habit. Other species with ornamental white bark include Betula ermanii , Betula papyrifera , Betula pendula and Betula raddeana . In the European Union, a prescription gel containing birch bark extract (commercial name Episalvan , betulae cortex dry extract (5–10 : 1); extraction solvent: n -heptane 95% (w/w)) was approved in 2016 for the topical treatment of minor skin wounds in adults. Although its mechanism of action in helping to heal injured skin
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#1732783624119936-520: 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 –
1014-556: 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
1092-453: Is a small samara , although the wings may be obscure in some species. They differ from the alders ( Alnus , another genus in the family) in that the female catkins are not woody and disintegrate at maturity, falling apart to release the seeds, unlike the woody, cone-like female alder catkins. The bark of all birches is characteristically marked with long, horizontal lenticels , and often separates into thin, papery plates, especially upon
1170-874: Is closely related to the beech - oak family Fagaceae . The genus Betula contains 30 to 60 known taxa of which 11 are on the IUCN 2011 Red List of Threatened Species. They are typically short-lived pioneer species and are widespread in the Northern Hemisphere , particularly in northern areas of temperate climates and in boreal climates . Birch wood is used for a wide range of purposes. Birch species are generally small to medium-sized trees or shrubs , mostly of northern temperate and boreal climates. The simple leaves are alternate, singly or doubly serrate, feather-veined, petiolate and stipulate. They often appear in pairs, but these pairs are really borne on spur-like, two-leaved, lateral branchlets . The fruit
1248-666: Is compressed, two-celled, and crowned with two slender styles; the ovule is solitary. Each scale bears a single small, winged nut that is oval, with two persistent stigmas at the apex. Betula species are organised into five subgenera. Note: many American texts have B. pendula and B. pubescens confused, though they are distinct species with different chromosome numbers. The common name birch comes from Old English birce , bierce , from Proto-Germanic * berk-jōn (cf. German Birke , West Frisian bjirk ), an adjectival formation from * berkōn (cf. Dutch berk , Low German Bark , Danish birk , Norwegian bjørk ), itself from
1326-400: Is fair. The flowers are monoecious , and open with or before the leaves. Once fully grown, these leaves are usually 3–6 millimetres ( 1 ⁄ 8 – 1 ⁄ 4 in) long on three-flowered clusters in the axils of the scales of drooping or erect catkins or aments. Staminate catkins are pendulous, clustered, or solitary in the axils of the last leaves of the branch of the year or near
1404-613: Is highly adaptive and able to sustain harsh conditions with casual indifference. Proof of this adaptability is seen in its easy and eager ability to repopulate areas damaged by forest fires or clearings. Birches are also associated with Tír na nÓg , the land of the dead and the Sidhe , in Gaelic folklore, and as such frequently appear in Scottish, Irish, and English folksongs and ballads in association with death, or fairies, or returning from
1482-865: Is named after the birch. The generic name Betula is from Latin , which is a diminutive borrowed from Gaulish betua (cf. Old Irish bethe , Welsh bedw ). Within Betulaceae, birches are most closely related to alder. The oldest known birch fossils are those of Betula leopoldae from the Klondike Mountain Formation in Washington State, US, which date to the early Eocene ( Ypresian ) around 49 million years ago. Birches often form even-aged stands on light, well-drained, particularly acidic soils . They are regarded as pioneer species , rapidly colonizing open ground especially in secondary successional sequences following
1560-531: Is not fully understood, birch bark extract appears to stimulate the growth of keratinocytes which then fill the wound. Preliminary research indicates that the phytochemicals , betulin and possibly other triterpenes , are active in Episalvan gel and wound healing properties of birch bark. Over centuries, birch bark was used in traditional medicine practices by North American indigenous people for treating superficial wounds by applying bark directly to
1638-571: 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
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#17327836241191716-602: 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
1794-614: The Bulbourne valley A large part of the site was previously occupied by Pixies Hill – a children's camp run by the National Camps Corporation . The old camp buildings were converted into the district's first school before permanent schools could be constructed. Building work on the new town district commenced in 1953 with the first houses occupied in December of that year. The Chaulden Neighbourhood centre –
1872-543: 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
1950-671: 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
2028-631: 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
2106-510: The Proto-Indo-European root * bʰerHǵ- ~ bʰrHǵ -, which also gave Lithuanian béržas , Latvian Bērzs , Russian берёза (berëza) , Ukrainian береза ( beréza) , Albanian bredh 'fir', Ossetian bærz(æ) , Sanskrit bhurja , Polish brzoza , Latin fraxinus 'ash (tree)'. This root is presumably derived from * bʰreh₁ǵ- 'to shine, whiten', in reference to the birch's white bark. The Proto-Germanic rune berkanan
2184-411: The paper birch . Distinctive colors give the common names gray , white , black , silver and yellow birch to different species. The buds, forming early and full-grown by midsummer, are all lateral, without a terminal bud forming; the branch is prolonged by the upper lateral bud. The wood of all the species is close-grained with a satiny texture and capable of taking a fine polish; its fuel value
2262-568: 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
2340-581: 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
2418-484: 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
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2496-891: 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
2574-552: 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
2652-503: 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,
2730-565: The Swedish city of Umeå . In 1888, the Umeå city fire spread all over the city and nearly burnt it down to the ground, but some birches, supposedly, halted the spread of the fire. To protect the city against future fires, wide avenues were created, and these were lined with silver birch trees all over the city. Umeå later adopted the unofficial name of "City of the Birches ( Björkarnas stad )". Also,
2808-574: 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
2886-585: The area during the nineteenth century. Chaulden House stables and an octagonal tower dating from the mid-19th century are all that now remain of the house. The tower may have been a dovecote . It is currently used by the NHS . For many years a waterwheel on the River Bulbourne pumped water up to the house. The ancient Chaulden Lane is thought to preserve the route of Akeman Street , the Roman Road along
2964-425: The birch ( Sanskrit : भुर्ज, bhurja ) holds great historical significance in the culture of North India , where the thin bark coming off in winter was extensively used as writing paper. Birch paper (Sanskrit: भुर्ज पत्र, bhurja patra ) is exceptionally durable and was the material used for many ancient Indian texts. The Roman period Vindolanda tablets also use birch as a material on which to write and birch bark
3042-465: 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
3120-573: The closeness to nature of the Russians. It's associated with marriage and love. There are numerous folkloric Russian songs in which the birch tree occurs. The Ornäs birch is the national tree of Sweden. The Czech word for the month of March, Březen, is derived from the Czech word bříza meaning birch, as birch trees flower in March under local conditions. The silver birch tree is of special importance to
3198-438: The construction of drum shells, owing to its strength and colour which takes stain in an appealing way, and which can also amber over very well, while also giving the drums an appealing tone which changes depending on the type of birch used. Birches have spiritual importance in several religions, both modern and historical. In Celtic cultures, the birch symbolises growth, renewal, stability, initiation, and adaptability because it
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3276-399: 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,
3354-424: 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. Birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus Betula ( / ˈ b ɛ tj ʊ l ə / ), in the family Betulaceae , which also includes alders , hazels , and hornbeams . It
3432-502: 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
3510-522: The ends of the short lateral branchlets of the year. They form in early autumn and remain rigid during the winter. The scales of the mature staminate catkins are broadly ovate, rounded, yellow or orange colour below the middle and dark chestnut brown at apex. Each scale bears two bractlets and three sterile flowers, each flower consisting of a sessile, membranous, usually two-lobed, calyx. Each calyx bears four short filaments with one-celled anthers or strictly, two filaments divided into two branches, each bearing
3588-404: 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
3666-579: 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
3744-615: The grave. The leaves of the silver birch tree are used in the festival of St George, held in Novosej and other villages in Albania. The birch is New Hampshire 's state tree and the national tree of Finland and Russia. The yellow birch is the official tree of the province of Quebec (Canada). The birch is a very important element in Russian culture and represents the grace, strength, tenderness and natural beauty of Russian women as well as
3822-429: The hardness of birch, it is easier to shape it with power tools; it is quite difficult to work it with hand tools. The inner bark is considered edible as an emergency food, even when raw. It can be dried and ground into flour, as was done by Native Americans and early settlers. It can also be cut into strips and cooked like noodles. The sap can be drunk or used to make syrup and birch beer . Tea can be made from
3900-409: The ice hockey team of Umeå is called Björklöven , translated to English "The Birch Leaves". "Swinging" birch trees was a common game for American children in the nineteenth century. American poet Lucy Larcom 's "Swinging on a Birch Tree" celebrates the game. The poem inspired Robert Frost , who pays homage to the act of climbing birch trees in his more famous poem, "Birches". Frost once told "it
3978-450: 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
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#17327836241194056-562: 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
4134-600: 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,
4212-511: 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
4290-402: 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
4368-438: 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
4446-520: 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
4524-435: 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
4602-591: 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
4680-451: The red inner bark of black birches. White-barked birches in particular are cultivated as ornamental trees, largely for their appearance in winter. The Himalayan birch, Betula utilis , especially the variety or subspecies jacquemontii , is among the most widely planted for this purpose. It has been cultivated since the 1870s, and many cultivars are available, including 'Doorenbos', 'Grayswood Ghost' and 'Silver Shadow'; 'Knightshayes' has
4758-553: 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
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#17327836241194836-572: 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
4914-475: The skin. Splints made with birch bark were used as casts for broken limbs in the 16th century . Wood pulp made from birch gives relatively long and slender fibres for a hardwood . The thin walls cause the fibre to collapse upon drying, giving a paper with low bulk and low opacity. The birch fibres are, however, easily fibrillated and give about 75% of the tensile strength of softwood. The low opacity makes it suitable for making glassine . In India ,
4992-505: 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
5070-488: 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
5148-459: 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
5226-562: 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
5304-536: 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 ,
5382-487: 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
5460-414: 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
5538-513: 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
5616-591: 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
5694-555: 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
5772-562: 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
5850-484: 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
5928-489: 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,
6006-494: 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
6084-444: Was used widely in ancient Russia as notepaper ( beresta ) and for decorative purposes and even making footwear ( lapti ) and baskets. Birch wood is sometimes used as a tonewood for semiacoustic and acoustic guitar bodies, and occasionally for solid-body guitar bodies. It is also a common material used in mallets for keyboard percussion . Drum manufacturers, such as Gretsch and Yamaha , have been known to use birch wood in
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