This website was last updated on 20 July 2011 
WELCOME to the website for The Hemel Hempstead Local History & Museum Society. We are a friendly group of people who are all interested in the local history of the area, and look forward to the day when Hemel can have its own local museum.
We welcome all ages from youngsters still at school & college (we have special membership rates for students), to those at the other end of life’s scale. All that is needed is an interest in our local history – our heritage.
Membership varies from those who have undertaken detailed research into various aspects of our local history, to others who are simply interested in the past, and in particular in our own area. Several of our members have published books on aspects of our local history, whereas others are content to read the fruits of their studies.
The society has one of the largest specialist lending libraries of books in Hertfordshire, covering all aspects of the history & archaeology of this part of the county and also further afield. Books are free on loan to members.
We meet on the fourth Wednesday of each month, (excepting August & December) at the Carey Baptist Church Hall, Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead. Each month we welcome a speaker. Topics covered are varied and the talk is usually accompanied by slides or other illustrative material. Sometimes the speaker will bring along a small selection of documentation or ephemera to share with us.
Mike Stanyon giving a talk on Dickinson’s Transportation, June 23rd 2009
VISITORS AND NEW MEMBERS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME.
CALLING ALL GRANDPARENTS!
In this year of the book, I decided to write a small book for my granddaughter telling her of what it was like when I was a little girl growing up – in my case on the Isle of Wight and in Surrey.
I would like to challenge the Grandparents & Great-Grandparents of Dacorum to do the same, i.e. write a letter or short story for their Grandchildren telling them of what it was like growing up; what their town or village was like and the things they had and did which are different to now, and the items we have now and take for granted, which we didn’t have when we were young children.
[For example as a 4 year old I had a ration book for certain items, I played marbles in the gutter of our road with my friends (cars were few and far between), and the only persons I knew who had a telephone were our Doctor and Dentist. My paternal grandparents had a phone installed when I was about 4, and they had to share their phone line with someone else. We had no car until I was about 7, and that was my grandfather’s ancient sit-up and beg Morris which he was no longer able to drive. My mother didn’t have a washing machine of any kind until I was about 8, and that was a twin tub. And we were the first of all my friends to have central heating installed – just before the big freeze in the early 1960’s – and prior to that I can remember having to get dressed, shivering, in front of the dining room fire of a morning, with my clothes draped over a clothes horse to warm them.]
Once you have written your letter or short story, and attached any relevant images to it, please post it to lghistorian@btinternet.com together with your name, and contact details, and I will then post it on the Dacorum History Digest website. Hopefully over time, this will then build-up into a useful collection painting a picture of life in Dacorum before the age of instant and mass communication.
Barbara Chapman
This site was last updated: 20 July 2011 
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