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Hemel Hempstead (/ ˌ h ɛ m əl ˈ h ɛ m p s t ɪ d /) is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is located 24 miles (39 km) north-west of London ; nearby towns include Watford , St Albans and Berkhamsted .
- Old Town
- Gadebridge Park
- Grand Union Canal
- Old Gorhambury House
- Gorhambury House
- The Chilterns
- St Mary’s Church
- Frithsden Vineyard
- Piccotts End Paintings
- The Making of Harry Potter
Although Hemel Hempstead ballooned as a New Town following the Second World War, it received its town charter from Henry VIII in 1539 and has a fine historic centre along its High Street. With pavements laid with yorkstone and granite, the High Street is traced by two long rows of listed buildings dating back to Tudor times, some of which are half-...
The largest public space in the surrounding Dacorum Borough, Gadebridge Park hugs the banks of the River Gade to the north of Hemel Hempstead’s Old Town. In 80 acres the park is divided by the Leighton Buzzard Road and has all the facilities you’d want like children’s playgrounds, a prim walled garden, cycle and walking paths and a skate park. You ...
The 137-mile Grand Union Canal, linking London with Birmingham, is the longest single canal in the UK, and is an amalgamation of different, older waterways that all merged in 1929. The canal cuts through Hemel Hempstead via Apsley, a mill village that grew around what was then called the Grand Trunk Canal after it came through in 1798. The easy flo...
Bounding Hemel Hempstead to the east is the Gorhmbury Estate, the residence for the Bacon and the Grimston families. The main attraction here is Old Gorhambury House (1563-68), a ruined Elizabethan Prodigy House built for Sir Nicholas Bacon, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. Houses like this were a manifestation of power intended to impress Elizab...
Robert Taylor, the 18th-century architect who worked on the Bank of England building, was commissioned for the new Gorhambury House at the turn of the 1780s, using material from the old building. The Palladian mansion is Grade II* listed and the double height hallway and spiral staircase are trademarks of Taylor’s style. When this article was writt...
Hemel Hempstead is below the east slopes of a chalk escarpment that runs diagonally through the counties of Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire for about 46 miles. A classic Chiltern landscape is rounded grassy hills topped with beech forest swooping down to chalk streams. There are historic estates, many now open as Nation...
In Medieval times Hemel Hempstead was no more than a hamlet, so it’s a mystery why a church of such dimensions was built here. St Mary’s Church was begun around 1140, taking 40 years to be completed. Local clunch stone (chalky limestone) and flint was used in the construction, but interestingly these are combined with Roman-fired bricks in places. ...
Wineries are less out of place in southern England than you might think. Rising annual temperatures and the chalky soil of the Chilterns provide the right environment for a number of cool-climate grapes. These are Rondo (red), Solaris (white) and Phoenix (white), all developed in Germany and Czechoslovakia in the 20th century. Frithsden Vineyard wa...
In 1953 a series of masterful Medieval wall paintings was discovered at 132 Piccotts End in a terrace of old cottages. These pre-Reformation religious scenes were painted between 1470 and 1500, when the terrace was one building rather than separate dwellings. The five panels are arranged like a kind of iconostasis, and show Christ in Majesty, the b...
The Warner Bros. film studio at Leavesden may not be in Hemel Hempstead, but at just 15 minutes away by car it’s a detour that Harry Potter fans will be glad to make. Over a decade from 2001, the production of every Harry Potter movie was based at Leavesden. And thanks to the quantity of painstakingly realised costumes, sets, animatronics, props an...
Things to Do in Hemel Hempstead, England: See Tripadvisor's 42,774 traveller reviews and photos of Hemel Hempstead tourist attractions. Find what to do today, this weekend, or in September. We have reviews of the best places to see in Hemel Hempstead. Visit top-rated & must-see attractions.
Aug 9, 2024 · Hemel Hempstead, town and urban area (from 2011 built-up area), Dacorum district, administrative and historic county of Hertfordshire, south-central England, northwest of London. The first charter was granted in 1539. The new town, one of eight designed by British planners to accommodate London’s.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Hemel Hempstead Tourism: Tripadvisor has 42,801 reviews of Hemel Hempstead Hotels, Attractions, and Restaurants making it your best Hemel Hempstead resource.
Hemel Hempstead Tourism: Tripadvisor has 42,809 reviews of Hemel Hempstead Hotels, Attractions, and Restaurants making it your best Hemel Hempstead resource.
Attractions and Places to Visit in Hemel Hempstead. Hemel Hempstead is well known for its 'Magic Roundabout' (formally known as the Plough Roundabout), which allows traffic to go around it in both directions.
