THE VILLAGE INN by John Betjeman “The village inn, the dear old inn, So ancient, clean and free from sin, True centre of our rural life Where Hodge sits down beside his wife And talks of Marx and nuclear fission With all a rustic’s intuition. Ah, more than church or school or hall, The village… Continue reading The Village Inn
Category: Around Hertford
Hertford Saved! – Doomed!
So, after 6 years a development on the Bircherley Green Shopping Centre site was given the green light on 25th June 2020. I sat through 2 hours of the Development Management Committee and frankly learned nothing that I didn’t know already. It confirmed two things. One it was not viable to offer affordable housing and… Continue reading Hertford Saved! – Doomed!
Fore Street – Solved!!
I spent more years than I can remember at the Hertford Transport Forum discussing the vexed question of Fore Street. Or more precisely the western end of Fore Street which connects it to Parliament Square. There was no argument that this small section of road created more questions than answers. It also created a rat… Continue reading Fore Street – Solved!!
Seed Warehouse
The Seed Warehouse houses the Mill Bridge Rooms which are owned by Hertford Town Council and can be hired by small groups for meetings. The truth is that the Seed Warehouse is a Tardis. You could almost walk past it, unaware of its existence down a narrow alleyway, squeezed between a newsagents and a fast… Continue reading Seed Warehouse
Hertford East Station
School for Scoundrels I was pleased to discover that I am not the only person to watch old black and white films on Talking Pictures TV. They recently broadcast School for Scoundrels; a typical 1960 British comedy that even Ian Carmichael, Terry Thomas and the legendary Alastair Sim cannot raise over the ordinary. My wife… Continue reading Hertford East Station
Bircherley Green 2020
As promised in my previous post I am placing my letter of objection to the latest planning application for Bircherley Green as submitted by Chase New Homes. The full list of documents accompanying the application can be viewed here. My own letter of objection is posted here and can be read as a .pdf file.… Continue reading Bircherley Green 2020
The Great Wen
But what is to be fate of that great wen of all? The monster called … ?William Cobbett (1762 – 1835) Rural Rides, 1822. You may ask what William Cobbett has to do with modern day Hertford. In Cobbett’s time the Great Wen, the monster, was London. Today the great wen (or sore) in the… Continue reading The Great Wen
Sitting in Bircherley Green
“I used to have a standing joke and say if I’d been really bad and went to purgatory when I died, I’d find myself trapped in Peterborough railway station on a cold winter’s night, with the cold wind blowing across the Fens.” Not my words but those of Louise Doughty talking to BBC News about… Continue reading Sitting in Bircherley Green
Fings aint what they used to be
Since it was announced that Chase Homes intended to buy Bircherley Green the newspapers, message boards and pubs have been full of hopes, plans and wish lists. Unfortunately the planning process does not work that way. I have lived in Hertford since 1980 but was born and grew up in Camden Town. On Saturday morning… Continue reading Fings aint what they used to be
This is your home town
Son take a good look aroundThis is your home town. Bruce Springsteen I am tired of everybody telling me that Hertford is the county town. Maybe it is; but on what grounds? Look at this. This is the situation facing anyone walking through Maidenhead Street towards Salisbury Square. You have to turn left and cross… Continue reading This is your home town