Hatfield, Hertfordshire

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Coordinates: 51°45′43″N 0°13′41″W / 51.762°N 0.228°W / 51.762; -0.228

Hatfield
Hatfield House - the Old Palace - geograph.org.uk - 1839366.jpg
The Old Palace at Hatfield House
Hatfield is located in Hertfordshire
Hatfield

 Hatfield shown within Hertfordshire
Population 29,616 (2001)
OS grid reference TL2308
Civil parish Hatfield
District Welwyn Hatfield
Shire county Hertfordshire
Region East
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town HATFIELD
Postcode district AL9
AL10
Dialling code 01707
Police Hertfordshire
Fire Hertfordshire
Ambulance East of England
EU Parliament East of England
UK Parliament Welwyn Hatfield
List of places
UK
England
Hertfordshire

Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It had a population of 29,616 in 2001,[1] and is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, the home of the Marquess of Salisbury, is the nucleus of the old town. From the 1930s when de Havilland opened a factory until the 1990s when British Aerospace closed, Hatfield was associated with aircraft design and manufacture, which employed more people than any other industry. Hatfield was one of the post-war New Towns built around London and has much modernist architecture from the period. The University of Hertfordshire is based there. In 2000, there was a fatal rail crash on the line that runs through the town from London to York, in which four people lost their lives. Hatfield is 20 miles north of London. A train service runs directly from Hatfield Station to Kings Cross, taking approximately 20 minutes on the fast service.

Contents

History [edit]

Early history [edit]

In the Saxon period Hatfield was known as Hetfelle, but by the year 970, when King Edgar gave 5,000 acres (20 km2) to the monastery of Ely, it had become known as Haethfeld. Hatfield is mentioned in the Domesday Book as the property of the Abbey of Ely, and unusually, the original census data which compilers of Domesday used still survives, giving us slightly more information than got into the final Domesday record.[2] No other records remain from that time until 1226, when Henry III granted the Bishops of Ely rights to an annual four-day fair and a weekly market. The town was then called Bishop's Hatfield. Hatfield House is the seat of the Cecil family, the Marquesses of Salisbury. Elizabeth Tudor was confined there for three years in what is now known as "The Old Palace" in Hatfield Park. Legend has it that it was here in 1558, while sitting under an oak tree in the Park, that she learned that she had become Queen following the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary I. She held her first Council in the Great Hall (The Old Palace) of Hatfield. In 1851, the route of the Great North Road (now the A1000) was altered to avoid cutting through the grounds of Hatfield House.

Hatfield House.
Church of St Etheldreda in Old Hatfield.

The town grew up around the gates of Hatfield House. Old Hatfield retains many historic buildings, notably the Old Palace, St Etheldreda's Church and Hatfield House. The Old Palace was built by the Bishop of Ely, Cardinal Morton, in 1497, during the reign of Henry VII, and the only surviving wing is still used today for Elizabethan-style banquets. St Etheldreda's Church was founded by the monks from Ely, and the first wooden church, built in 1285, was probably sited where the existing building stands overlooking the old town.

Aerospace industry [edit]

In 1930 the de Havilland airfield and aircraft factory was opened at Hatfield and by 1949 it had become the largest employer in the town, with almost 4,000 staff.[3] It was taken over by Hawker Siddeley in 1960 and merged into British Aerospace in 1978. In the 1930s it produced a range of small biplanes. During the Second World War it produced the Mosquito fighter bomber and developed the Vampire, the second British production jet aircraft after the Gloster Meteor. After the war, facilities were expanded and it developed the Comet airliner (the world's first production jet liner), the Trident airliner, and an early bizjet, the DH125.

The Harrier Pub (formerly The Hilltop) is actually named after the Harrier Bird, not the aircraft, hence the original pub sign of a Harrier Bird.

British Aerospace closed the Hatfield site in 1993 having moved the BAe 146 production line to Woodford Aerodrome. The land was used as a film set for Steven Spielberg's movie Saving Private Ryan and most of the BBC/HBO television drama Band of Brothers. It was later developed for housing, higher education, commerce and retail. Part of the former British Aerospace site was intended to be the site of a £500 million new hospital to replace the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Welwyn GC and a new campus for Oaklands College, but both projects were cancelled.[citation needed]

Today, Hatfield's aviation history is remembered by the names of certain local streets and pubs (e.g. Comet Way, The Airfield, Dragon Road) as well as The Comet Hotel (now owned by Ramada) built in the 1930s. The de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre, at Salisbury Hall in nearby London Colney, preserves and displays many historic de Havilland aeroplanes and related archives.

New Town [edit]

Hatfield New Town centre, looking west along its axis.

After the Second World War, Hatfield was designated a New Town under the New Towns Act 1946 (and the earlier Abercrombie Plan for London in 1944), forming part of the initial Hertfordshire group with nearby Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth. The Government designated 2,340 acres (9.5 km2) for Hatfield New Town, with a population target of 25,000.[3] (By 2001 the population had reached 27,833.[4]) The Hatfield Development Corporation, tasked with creating the New Town, chose to build a new town centre, rejecting Old Hatfield because it was on the wrong side of the railway, without space for expansion and "with its intimate village character, out of scale with the town it would have to serve."[3] They chose instead St Albans Road on the town's east-west bus route. A road pattern was planned that offered no temptation to through traffic to take short cuts through the town and which enabled local traffic to move rapidly about the town.[3]

Hatfield retains New Town characteristics, including much modernist architecture of the 1950s and the trees and open spaces that were outlined in the original design. The redevelopment of the town centre is being planned, involving the construction of 275 flats and retail units. Planning permission has been granted and compulsory purchase orders have been approved.[citation needed]

Governance [edit]

Hatfield is part of Welwyn Hatfield borough council in the county of Hertfordshire. It is a civil parish and has a town council. It is twinned with the Dutch port town of Zierikzee. Hatfield is part of the Welwyn Hatfield constituency, which includes Welwyn Garden City. The MP for Welwyn Hatfield is Grant Shapps, (Conservative).

Geography [edit]

Climate [edit]

Hatfield experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.

Climate data for Hatfield
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 8
(46)		 9
(48)		 12
(54)		 14
(57)		 18
(64)		 21
(70)		 23
(73)		 23
(73)		 20
(68)		 16
(61)		 11
(52)		 8
(46)		 15
(59)
Average low °C (°F) 5
(41)		 5
(41)		 6
(43)		 8
(46)		 10
(50)		 13
(55)		 15
(59)		 16
(61)		 13
(55)		 11
(52)		 8
(46)		 5
(41)		 10
(50)
Precipitation mm (inches) 50.7
(1.996)		 39.9
(1.571)		 31.7
(1.248)		 46.2
(1.819)		 38.9
(1.531)		 46.4
(1.827)		 33.1
(1.303)		 43.6
(1.717)		 49.7
(1.957)		 70.7
(2.783)		 58.1
(2.287)		 56.9
(2.24)		 565.9
(22.28)
Source: [5]

Culture and recreation [edit]

The south wing of The Galleria with the connecting bridge on the right of the photograph, viewed from its north wing.
EE Head Office in Hatfield Business Park.
The memorial garden built alongside the East Coast Main Line.
Hatfield railway station viewed from the public footbridge.
Statue of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury in front of the park gates of Hatfield House.

Hatfield has a nine screen cinema, a factory outlet shopping centre situated above the A1(M) called The Galleria and two supermarkets - Asda in the town centre and Tesco at the northern end of the town.

Sport [edit]

Hatfield Town F.C. in Non-League football plays at Gosling Sports Park.

The town also has one public swimming pool and two sports/leisure centres.

Education [edit]

Hatfield contains numerous primary and secondary schools, including The Ryde School, St. Philip Howard Catholic Primary School, Onslow St Audrey's School and Bishops Hatfield Girls School and the independent day and boarding girls' school Queenswood School.

The University of Hertfordshire is based in Hatfield. A large section of the airfield site was purchased by the University and the £120 million de Havilland Campus, incorporating a £15 million Sports Village, was opened in September 2003. The university has closed its sites at Watford and Hertford; faculties situated there have been moved to the de Havilland Campus.

Places of interest [edit]

  • College Lane Campus and de Havilland campus of the University of Hertfordshire.
  • Hatfield House.
  • Mill Green Museum and watermill.
  • The Galleria.
  • Hatfield Business Park, former de Haviland plant, later became Base Systems Hatfield and was used for the filming of Saving Private Ryan(film) and Band of Brothers (TV series).

Notable businesses [edit]

Transport [edit]

Hatfield is 20 miles (32 km) to the north of London. It is 14 miles (23 km) from London Luton Airport and also near to Stansted airport The A1(M) runs through the town and it is close to the M25.

The East Coast railway line from London to York runs through the town and separates the old and new parts of Hatfield. A 22-minute commuter service connects Hatfield railway station to London Kings Cross.

There was a fatal rail crash at Hatfield in 2000, which brought track maintenance deficiencies to public attention.[citation needed] A garden beside the East Coast Main Line was built as a memorial for the crash victims.

Famous residents [edit]

Nearby towns and villages [edit]

See also [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hatfield, Hertfordshire

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Parish Headcounts: Welwyn Hatfield". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 30 May 2011. 
  2. ^ Hatfield And Its People, Workers Educational Association, 13 vols., 1959-1966
  3. ^ a b c d Brett, Lionel, Hatfield New Town, Report of the Hatfield Development Corporation, 1949
  4. ^ Office for National Statistics, 2001 Census, Key Statistics for HCC Settlements
  5. ^ "Averages for Hatfield". 
  6. ^ Hatfield Business Park
  7. ^ Discogs Babe Ruth
  8. ^ Bobby Shred's Babe Ruth Tribute Page
  9. ^ Martins Biography :: Waterson : Carthy :: Keeping it in the Family
  10. ^ "Profile: Iain Dowie". London: The Times. 2003-08-01. Retrieved 2008-12-30. 
  11. ^ "Slim Elwin - a chronology". Steve Lewins. Retrieved 2008-12-30. 
  12. ^ "Guy Ritchie Biography". The Biography Channel. Retrieved 2007-12-12. 
  13. ^ "Dr Lokusatu Heva Sumanadasa – pilot, engineer and educator". www.hatfield-herts.co.uk. Retrieved 2011-12-25. 
Ceremonial county of Hertfordshire
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