Cheshunt

Originally one of the largest country houses in the town of Cheshunt, Grundy Park is now home to one of the Borough of Broxbourne’s leisure centres. The grounds are still attractive quiet public gardens, but the fine topiary has disappeared. The greenhouses on the right provided particularly fine blossoms throughout the year and were in great demand during civic gatherings.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

Designed by Christopher Wren in 1672 as a triumphal arch, Temple Bar originally stood at the top of Fleet Street in London. In 1878, it was removed because it was proving to be a major restriction to traffic. When the Meux family brought the remains to Theobalds, they had intended that it should become the gate-house to the estate, but it was never properly installed. Over the years there have been a number of attempts to return Temple Bar to London, but it seems that each proposal is blocked by bureaucracy.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

The library, part funded by a gift to the people of Cheshunt by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, was opened to the public in 1907. Designed by J Myrtle Smith, the library included a School of Art. Every detail in the building was crafted with a meticulous eye for design; the banisters on the stairs, the handles to the doors, the stained glass windows, all were manufactured for this specific building and to the highest possible standard. The first Librarian was Oswald C Hudson. He was given a magnificent annual grant of £14 to purchase new books. Such was the demand from the expanding population that new wings were added (after this photograph was taken) in 1956.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

Newnham Parade, built in the early 1960s on the site of the old Triangle Cafe (which had been demolished in 1960), was a favourite meeting place for locals and travellers from London to Ware. In the 1990s the fountain was the subject of occasional comment by residents, who complained that the water height was not quite up to standard. An officer of the local council was deputised to be ‘Fountain Monitor’ to record the force each day. In winter, when the fountain froze, this was a particularly challenging responsibility.
An extract from from"Hertfordshire Living Memories".

What life was like for the unfortunate plait children can be gleaned from a Factory Inspector’s report in 1870. He associated their mothers, the plait women, with ‘vacant minds, dirty cottages and neglected children’. The decline of the plait schools was caused mainly by the deterioration of the plait industry; aided by the fact that from 1891 education was not only compulsory, it was also free. The 19th century was a century of Free Trade and this allowed cheap plait imports from Italy and later from China and Japan. Plaits that were sold for one shilling (10p) a score in 1838, were only fetching 3d (1.5p) in 1893. By the 1870s an experienced plaiter’s earnings had dropped to about four shillings a week. In spite of the hardships, straw plaiting provided a much-needed income for the labouring poor and opportunities for the aged and widows, who otherwise would become a burden on the parish. The craft, the way of life of the plaiters, together with their independent spirit, has endured in local memory. At the other end of the social scale, the arrival in the early 19th century of the gentry in the form of the Cooper family provided a noticeable Tory-Anglican form of interference into local affairs. The people of Hemel Hempstead, who during the Middle Ages were ruled by the rector and monks at Ashridge, now found themselves under the stewardship of the gentry who lived at Gadebridge. Indeed, the Cooper family interfered with life in Hemel Hempstead in a way that the Lords of the Manor, the Halsey family, never did. (Dacorum Heritage Trust Ltd) Gadebridge House and estate was purchased for the town by the Hemel Hempstead Borough Council in 1952. The house became a preparatory school for boys until 1963 and was demolished when Kodak bought the site. When Kodak moved the site was developed for housing.
An extract from from"Hemel Hempstead - A History & Celebration".