what does Hatfield have to offer?

[Stubby47]

No, eLearning - how to develop courses

[PMP]

Wear a shell suit, practice mouth breathing and you'll be alright.

[Stubby47]

Have to say, you guys are really helping me, but I do have to go...

[Nimbus]

Wear a shell suit, practice mouth breathing and you'll be alright.

Pack a Babel Fish as well!

 

The Nim.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

The tragedy of Hatfield. The small ancient town on the 'Great North Road' still exists in part  - where it wasn't maniacally attacked by 'planners' post WWII - East of the Railway Station.

 

Here you will find the Jacobean Hatfield House, still in private hands, and alongside one wing of the earlier Hatfield Palace. These are of national importance, Princess Elizabeth Tudor was there when she came to the throne on the death of bloody Mary, and the Cecils and their descendants have played a modest part in our national political set up for some time. The park gates facing the station site enabled the Prime Minister Lord Salisbury to proceed directly to his private up side waiting room: not that this was required when Parliament was in session as the GNR kept a single and carriage to whisk him express to KX: reputedly in seventeen minutes, a service unmatched since.

 

The old town, up the side of the hill with St Etheldredas on top, still retains some charm. Among other mentions Bill Sykes is imagined by Darles Chickens as taking an ale in one of the still existing pubs. There were many of these as it was a horse change point on the Great North Road, as this major road followed a truly tortuous route through the little town.

 

The station is a sterile wasteland when compared to the old establishment with its three platform heights, four sgnal boxes, a loco shed serving the country end of the inner suburban service and three branchlines, a busy goods yard and rail served business, and the entire fast GN line services roaring by behind the mighty pacifics in a Grand Parade of Flamboyant Velocity, Miles Beevor anything that could be seen eleswhere on the UK's railways.

 

The once charming and stylish buildings of the De Havilland company still stand in part North of Galleria, to the west of what had been the A1. The airfield site from which first flew the DH88 racer, the Mosquito, Comet, Sea Vixen and Trident, and where the mind buggeringly loud, super effective and reliable Blue Streak rocket motor was developed and tested, now all lost under the boring and undistinguished buildings suited to modern commerce. Sigh.

[Stubby47]

I'm staying in the Premier Inn, the associated Brewer's Fayre pub is call the Airfield, a it stands on part of the de Havilland aerodrome. I've been looking on old maps of the area (http://maps.nls.uk/) but cannot see any runways or taxiways marked.

[Tony Davis]

When the A1 used to run past where the old factory was there used to be a model of the DH 88 Comet on the roof. Didn't know there used to be an Aerodrome there as well.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Take a stroll around and you will pick up some of the pattern. One long roughly North East-South West runway, the taxiways and 'apron' to the East (A1 side) where the production buildings and hangars stood.

 

There was even a model railway club, whose layout 'Havil' was the first example I ever saw of a scale model railway. Still exists, installed in WGC's Methodist Church.

http://www.dhmrs.co.uk/index.html

[McGomez]

Wasn't the model of the DH88 on the roof of the Comet Hotel/Motel?

[PMP]

Hatfield airfield has been razed to the ground. A few buildings remain, but the flat area of new housing and uni campus to the west of the gonorrhoea, sorry Galeria, has covered almost all the old site. None of the taxiway or runway survived. The old town as 34c has said is ok for drinking and food, the new town, my previous comment applies. The White Hart (now closed), was the only pub I worked in where you had a half pool cue under the counter (one per staff), for if the regulars got a bit 'loud'. They did on occasion, one time after calling hours a couple of disappointed customers put beer bottles of pool cues and smashed them against the ceiling support joists, exploding shards of glass across the pool tables, seats, floor, bar counter, everywhere basically. Nothing personal obviously, just a normal customer service complaint. Hatfield also has one of the best Porsche centres in the U.K., not so ironic when you think how fast people want to leave the place..

 

St. Albans, an affordable taxi trip away, is very nice and as others have said an easy and cheap trip into central London.

[Nimbus]

There was even a model railway club, whose layout 'Havil' was the first example I ever saw of a scale model railway. Still exists, installed in WGC's Methodist Church.

http://www.dhmrs.co.uk/index.html

The DeHavilland MRS was a hotbed of innovation in the 1960s, evidently carrying over this spirit from the day job. The fruits were often described in Railway Modeller, The one which particularly lodges in my mind is the use of printed circuit board to fabricate signal posts, using the copper strata to feed current to lamp bulbs. I read also that DH's expertise in laminated wood led to the MRS developing ply-and-rivet track construction. The company's scrap dumps were a goldmine to people like us!

 

The whole site was remarkably versatile. DH could provide all of airframe, power plants, propellers, weapons and avionics. I went to school under the flight path and witnessed such novelties as a HP Hastings with a strange scaffolding rig attached ahead of the wing. My Dad, who worked there, was able to tell me this was a spray rig to test the effects of icing on propellers under test. Then there was the new jet which appeared on landing approach to wear short trousers. This was Blackburn's NA39, visiting on account of its DeHavilland Gyron Junior engines. When the propeller business wound down, the ribald graffiti in the Manor Road lavatories was succeeded by strange abstract scribblings, diagrams perhaps? The electronics boffins had moved in. Air-launched guided missiles such as the DH Firestreak were the outcome. Their infra-red homing technology was later re-purposed for railway hot axlebox detection. If you find a Class 33 with slow speed control, you may find the maker's plate on the axlebox reveals it came from the same source.

 

The Nim.

[PMP]

Hatfield from the air

http://www.dhaetsa.org.uk/dhaets/documents/101457_hatfield_aerodrome_from_the_air_v2.pdf

 

I've got some air to ground images of the site taken from a helicopter on a navex whilst Saving Private Ryan was being filmed, I'll try and find them out if peeps are interested.

[Horsetan]

I've got a Volvo - this information is of no use whatsoever.

Well, it was worth a try.

[Jol Wilkinson]

Stubby,

 

depending on how much energy you've got left at the end of the day, then St Albans is better for restaurants, etc. and isn't too far away.

 

The Galleria has an Odeon multi screen cinema, so that might be an option. I've had a quick look and I think they are showing "Their Finest" next week. Recommended.

 

Jol

[Fat Controller]

How far is this http://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/ from Hatfield?

[57xx]

How far is this http://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/ from Hatfield?

 

A 20 minute drive, but no good for an evening jaunt as it shuts at 5pm.

 

You could always take a quick trip down the A1 and help Horsetan catalogue his kit mountain.

[TheSignalEngineer]

I'm staying in the Premier Inn, the associated Brewer's Fayre pub is call the Airfield, a it stands on part of the de Havilland aerodrome. I've been looking on old maps of the area (http://maps.nls.uk/) but cannot see any runways or taxiways marked.

The airfield is shown on the 1 inch 7th series to the west of the town, though it's probably in the middle by now. One runway, NE-SW and a taxi-way from the works.

[28XX]

I stayed in the Ramada Jarvis in 2004. A fragment of pre-apocalyptic Art Deco in an otherwise pretty dreary town. Still standing according to Google.

[Stubby47]

I looked at the reviews for the Ramada - I don't think it's been redecorated since it was built.

[pete_mcfarlane]

Wasn't the model of the DH88 on the roof of the Comet Hotel/Motel?

It was - I used to walk past it every day.

[pete_mcfarlane]

Wasn't the model of the DH88 on the roof of the Comet Hotel/Motel?

It was - I used to walk past it every day.

[Horsetan]

One day of visiting is enough. Only one place worse is Basildon, Essex, Half a day is enough!

You clearly haven't done Harlow. Half an hour is enough.

[chaz]

 

 

The real improvement to Hatfield was the A1 tunnel under the Galleria.

 

 

Indeed it was - you could pass the town without having to look at it.

[kernowtim]

When I was a member of the Dunstable mrc we organized a visit to the dehavilland clubroom on the airfield site, even met Monty Wells,author of many diesel modelling articles in RM, scary to think it was about 30 years ago!! Later visits were to the cinema as my mate was convinced it was better than Milton Keynes Point, never did visit galleria centre

[polybear]

When I was moving to the area in the late 1980s and was looking for a house to buy, Hatfield was described by a work colleague as 'like Stevenage but without the sophistication !' 

Bearing in mind Stevenage has all the sophistication of a brick in the face, this isn't much of a recommendation......