Berkhamsted
Berkhamsted photos (35 available)
Berkhamsted maps (2 available)
Map of Hertfordshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Hertfordshire
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Berkhamsted books (12 available)
Bishop's Stortford Town Walk Guide
Paperback
- 6 photos on Berkhamsted appear in 3 Frith books - View photos of Berkhamsted
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Berkhamsted and Hertfordshire
Berkhamsted memories
Read and share memories of Berkhamsted and Hertfordshire inspired by Frith photos
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Hertfordshire memories
Top End of High Street
The shop at the top left (now the Chinese Takeaway) was, I think, Wards the Greengrocers, the second shop down was Graingers the Newsagents (now Pendley Estate Agents). The newsagents was run by Mr & Mrs. Gadd, who lived above the shop. The garage was used to dispense the daily newspapers to the paperboys. There is also a brick built well in the back garden (who used it I don't know) as this was originally a field. The community well can still be found, capped off, in the cottages opposite. Wards moved further down the High Street into what is now Wilsons Estate Agents. Graingers moved to the top of the road into what became the Travel Agents (now demolished). Mr. ...read more here
A memory of Bovingdon contributed by Anne Broomhead
Shell Mex and BP Computer Centre
First started work at Hemel in November 1963. Following a spell at the Manchester Data Centre I returned in 1968 and remained until Brand Separation in 1974. We are now holding a reunion in July for anyone who worked for SMBP in either Data Centre.
Sad to learn that the building was demolished in the eighties.
Great fun was had watching the antics of the drivers coping with the magic roundabout.
A memory of Hemel Hempstead contributed by Bryan Clarke
Old Hemel
The old High Street, before Marlowes Town Centre was built.
A memory of Hemel Hempstead contributed by Susan Hawkridge
My Birth Place
I was born in Hemel Hempstead in March of 1957. My parents came from Portsmouth and County Durham. They met in London and moved to Hemel Hempstead, which was a new town, in search of good housing, school for my 5 year old sister and work prospects. We lived in Vauxhall Road when I was born. All my memories of Hemel are good ones and I still have family that live there, I still visit often and have seen many changes. It is much more populated now, the town centre Marlowes is the place to be for shopping with the new indoor centre. There is much more to do now, especially for the younger generation, which is a good thing. ...read more here
A memory of Hemel Hempstead contributed by Susan Hawkridge
Extracts From Berkhamsted & Hertfordshire books
As late as 1930, parts of the High Street at Berkhamsted were not fully made up; but with the increase of traffic on this main arterial road, it had one of the first junctions in Hertfordshire to become controlled by traffic lights. Pilkingtom Manor, mostly hidden by the trees on the left, was demolished in 1959, and today only the Dower House (the white gabled building in the centre of the photograph) survives. In the early 1800s, Berkhamsted was renowned for its high quality bobbin lace. There was a resurgence of the industry in the early 1900s, but with the importation of the cheaper ‘Maltese Pattern’ lace, the industry faded and disappeared.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".
The new church, St Peter’s, seems to have
been deliberately placed in a prominent
position close to the market place and the
approach to the castle. Geoffrey Fitz Piers,
Earl of Essex, holder of the castle at the
time, was the founder of the church, one of
the largest in the county. Its grandeur also
reflects the flourishing wool trade in the
town at this period.
The south side of the High Street was
higher and drier, and it was here that
the wealthier properties of the medieval
town were to be found. On the other side
were the stalls, shops and shambles of the
traders. It appears that the later medieval
lay-out of the town was the result of a
deliberate plan initiated by Geoffrey Fitz
Piers, and that it was contemporaneous
with the building of St Peter’s Church
and Castle Street. At about the same time
he founded two hospitals, the Hospital of
St John the Baptist and the Hospital of
St John the Evangelist. It is likely that the
second was at the eastern end of the town.
Both were dissolved in the 1520s, and the
revenues used as part of the endowment
for Berkhamsted School.
An extract from from"Berkhamsted - A History & Celebration".
Ashlyns School was built in 1933-35 and accepted its first pupils in September 1935. It originally offered places for 400 pupils aged between 5 and 15 years. The site had been used as an overflow for Thomas Coram’s Bloomsbury Foundling Hospital, but had passed to the estate of nearby Ashlyns Hall prior to its purchase in 1929. The new school was inaugurated by Prince Arthur of Connaught in July 1935; it became a Secondary Modern School in January 1951. Amongst its treasures were the original coat of arms from Coram’s Hospital, which still forms part of the pediment, and an organ donated by G F Handel to the Foundling Hospital. Unfortunately, the organ was removed when the County Council completed the purchase of the school in 1955.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".
The parish church of St Peter, which dates from before 1222, was built on the site of part of the old St John’s Chapel at the side of the Roman Akeman Street. In 1870 it was restored and clad in faced flint to a design by William Butterfield. The surplus flints from the interior were saved and used to build Sunnyside Church of St Michael and All Angels, which was dedicated in June 1909. Among the treasures of St Peter’s is a window commemorating the Hertfordshire poet William Cowper, who was born at Berkhamsted Rectory in 1731.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".
Parked by the side of Kings Road and opposite the memorial are a gleaming black Rover 14, a Riley 1.5 and an early F-type Vauxhall Victor. The school in the background was founded in 1541 by John Incent, Dean of St Paul’s, to provide education for 144 boys. Work was completed in 1544, and the school has been in continuous use since then. William Camden, the antiquarian, said: ‘This fine old school building is the only structure in Berkhamsted worth a second glance.’
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".