ALAN CASH - web pages WGC book index - click here Collection of books on Welwyn Garden City

Come to Hertfordshire - Official Guide

Author: anon

First published: 1950 (approx*) by The Simmath Press Ltd, Dundee

Format: Paperback 9½" by 7½" with 48 pages

* I am guessing 1950 as the publication date since nowhere in the book is the date given. The last mention of an event in the text is 1947 (a royal visit to South Africa) so it cannot be before that year. The cars in some of the pictures appear to be late forties or early fifties.

The guide is separated into 7 divisions with a few pages of text (brief historical and topographical details) and some photographs for each one. They are:

• Watford division
• South West Herts or Rickmansworth division (including Chorleywood and Bushey)
• Hemel Hempstead division (including Berkhamstead, Tring and Harpenden)
• St Albans division (including Welwyn Garden City)
• Barnet division (including Elstree, Boreham Wood and Hatfield)
• Hertford division.
• Hitchin division (including Letchworth)

There is only one paragraph of text on Welwyn Garden City:

"From the ancient to the modern we leap with a bound when we come to consider Welwyn Garden City, which was begun in 1920 and created an Urban District in 1927. Four small civil parishes were combined when the new authority was established, to-day the population being 17,000 to 18,000. The original intention was a place for 50,000, and with the New Town envisaged by the Minister of Planning, one wonders what the final form will take. Everything here is modern - residence, shops, factories, layout of roads and parks. Combining town and country, amenities are good for all sports as well as cultural interests. Industries are varied but mainly of the light and clean character. Sharrards Park Wood, with its magnificent specimens of oak and hornbeam, is a pleasant walk from the station. In Welwyn Old Parish Church, Dr Edward Young, author of "Night Thoughts," is buried. Digswell's Norman Church has several royal and other memorials, and Tewin has a legend associated with the tomb of Lady Anne Grimston, not unlike the Resurrection story of the Watford fig tree."

Most of the photographs in the guide (including those below) are credited to Studio Lisa.

(click on the images for a better view)

Advertisement for De Havilland plane manufacturer

The Viaduct, Digswell

Lemsford Village

Advertisement for Munt's cycle shop in Stonehills

Advertisement for Scottie's Tea Garden near the station

Parkway

Brocket Hall, Lemsford (where I was born)

(click on the images for a better view)