World War II And Beyond

A Memory of Hatfield.

My father studied at De Havilland Technical School before the war and was employed from 1938 to 1946 and 1953 to 1955 as an Inpector at De Hav's. We lived in Rodney Court, one of 'the flats' across the road from the De Havillands' main administration building shown in your 1951 pic. Thankfully, following the dismantling and destruction of this historic place, this building remains...as the Hatfield Police Station. We also lived at 13 Great North Road, in a 'grace and favour' cottage in 1953 but that, too, like so much of Hatfield has gone. At that time, I attended Countess Anne's School, up opposite St Ethlreda's and my sister attended St. Audrey's. We both have many wonderful memories of playing in and exploring Hatfield Park. We would shortcut though St Ethelreda's churchyard and climb over the turnstile in to the park. High adventure! We often found rabbit snares and disabled them! It was a wonderful time and place to be children. Actually, my parents met while working at De Hav's, he as an inspector and she as a fabric worker, patching bullet holes in Hawker Hurricane fighters among other things. She was also chased across a field at De Hav's by a German bomber and was saved from being machine-gunned by tripping and falling so that they over-flew her !