Heritage Hub

Heritage Hub
Heritage and history projects

Sarah Lloyd
Sarah Lloyd is working on Remembering
the First World War and Low
Carbon Pasts.
She is interested in the ways in
which the past is remembered and
re-used.
She is also Reader in History in the
School of Humanities and researches
the social history of 18th-century
Britain.

Alix Green
Alix Green is the University of Hertfordshire’s
Head of Policy and Lecturer
in History in Policy.
She is interested in the uses of history
in the public realm, particularly in its
political and international dimensions.
She is also involved with Low Carbon
Pasts.
Read Alix's blog on history, policy and
public life.
Rubina Menghrani
Rubina Menghrani is Business Development
Officer and has co-directed a
number of heritage projects, including
the de Havilland Reminiscence Project
About the Heritage Hub
Brandon Crimes
Brandon Crimes is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management
in the Business School.
The significance and management of heritage in the
tourism experience is often understated, despite heritage
being at the heart of the UK tourism industry.
Having been involved in a number of consultancy projects
in Hertfordshire and Libya, the focus on balancing
heritage promotion and management is increasingly
important for visitors and heritage sites.
The study of heritage tourism is complex, crossing many
disciplines and can at times be highly controversial..
Julie Moore
Julie Moore is Research Fellow with the Heritage Hub
and an expert in the history of 19th-century Hertfordshire,
especially agriculture and landed estates.
She works on a number of Heritage Hub projects,
including Remembering the First World War.
Christine Garwood
Dr Christine Garwood is Lecturer in
Public History and principal investigator
on the Partners in History: Collaborations
in Regional Heritage Project.
Directly prior to her Hertfordshire
post, she worked in museums and at
the Heritage Lottery Fund, where she
had a regional development role
working with organisations and
groups to develop and deliver successful
heritage projects.
Previous projects focused on topics
from community archives to oral
history, and included multi-million
pound redevelopment projects at the
Pitt Rivers Museum, Stowe School
and Bletchley Park among others.
Alongside her academic post, Dr Garwood
works as a heritage consultant
with a particular specialism in Heritage
Lottery funded work.

History of the University of Hertfordshire
Part of the community
Having been a central part of the
local community for 60 years, the
celebration offers a perfect
opportunity to look back and see
how far the University has come,
and to look forward to see how
far we still have to go.
Origins of the University
In September 1952, the first students
entered the newly built Hatfield Technical
College.
They were part of the post-war generation
looking to the development of
technical education to secure their
place in a rapidly changing world.
Drawn from the expanding population
centres across Hertfordshire, which
were created under the New Towns Act
of 1946, students included apprentice
engineers and draughtsmen from local
companies such as the de Havilland
Aircraft Company.
Young men and women also studied
Science and Humanities ‘A’ Levels,
Accountancy and Secretarial Skills.

The University of Hertfordshire
Since those early years the Technical College has
changed its name from Polytechnic to University, and
the syllabus has expanded to include courses like:
-Art and Design
-Business Studies
-Education
-Health and Human Sciences
-Law
-Sport Science
The identity of the University of Hertfordshire has
been strongly maintained as an institution grounded
in its locality and county.
Get involved in the Heritage Hub
Contact us if you have a research idea, would
like to get involved in a project, or want to find
out more about the University of Hertfordshire’s
Heritage Hub.

2014 will mark 100 years since the start of the First World War.
How will you commemorate the centenary?
Sharing history
Remembering the First World War is a collaborative
project that pools ideas and sources from across the
county.
The third event in this series will feature the latest
findings on Hertfordshire's war from individual
researchers and local history groups.
Hertfordshire has a fascinating history around the
First World War, and there is evidence of many lesser-known
stories involving the local area - stories
drowned out by powerful, yet familiar accounts of
mud, trenches and munitions.
The rich variety of these histories includes:
-Hertfordshire men in Egypt
-a pre-war German colony in Libury Hall,
Great Munden
-experiences of living in the county’s asylums
Remembering the First World
Airfield
Royal Flying Corps at London

Home to 56 Squadron
London Colney airfield, which is now a cornfield, was located
between the old Shenley Hospital and current Harperbury Hospital
sites, north of Shenley village (illustrated above).
In 1917, it was home to 56 Squadron who operated SE5A fighter
aircraft which flown by young Royal Flying Corps (RFC) pilots
in their early twenties.
One such pilot (see photo below) was the famous Captain
Albert Ball VC,DSO and MC who, as one of World War One's
Fighter Aces, developed his tactical airmanship skills whilst
based there.
Other Air Aces based at the airfield, included Mannock and
McCudden, all of whom lost their lives during the War.
For more information on the Landing Grounds of Hertfordshire,
please contact Guy Thomas.

Staging World War 1
Theatre during the War
Staging World War 1 investigates entertainment
during the First World War,
particularly theatre.
Led by Andrew Maunder of the English
Literature Group at the University of
Hertfordshire, the project also examines
variety and music hall.
Investigating First World War entertainment.
Popular wartime entertainment
Staging World War 1 is intended as a
corrective to the dominant literary view
of the war, which tends to come from
poetry from authors like Wilfred Owen
and Siegfried Sasson.
More people during the war went to the
theatre than read poems, with powerful
messages sent out via the theatre and
music halls.
Theatre helped shape people’s understanding
of the conflict, but most of this
work has long been forgotten about.
Two of these lost plays were recently
performed by Twisted Events Theatre
Company:
-Edmund Goulding’s God Save King
(1914)
-Berte Thomas’s For My Country
(1917)
Future productions
Staging World War 1 is currently working
on two more performances: John
Brandon’s The Pacifist (1918) and Herbert
Tremaine’s The Handmaidens of
Death (1919), which follows female
munitions workers.
In real life `Herbert Tremaine’ was
Letchworth author, Maude Deuchar.
Get involved with the Staging
World War 1 project
Staging World War 1 is currently working
on two more performances: John
Brandon’s The Pacifist (1918) and Herbert
Tremaine’s The Handmaidens of
Death (1919), which follows female
munitions workers.
In real life `Herbert Tremaine’ was
Letchworth author, Maude Deuchar.

de Havilland Airfield Community Heritage Project
Celebrate the cultural, social and economic heritage of the former
airfield and the thousands of people who worked there.
Commemorating the airfield
The impact of de Havilland Airfield on the
local community inspired this University of
Hertfordshire based project, which ran
between 2009-2011.
The de Havilland Airfield Community Heritage
project was funded by the Heritage
Lottery Fund, and involved working closely
with:
-The de Havilland Aeronautical Technical
School Assocation
-The de Havilland Housing Partnership
-Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
-Hatfield Local History Society
-Welwyn Hatfield Museum Service
Documenting local history
After 18 months, the team had collected a
substantial body of oral history recordings.
The oldest participants had memories dating
back to the 1930s. The youngest had worked
on Hollywood movies by director Steven
Spielberg that were filmed on the site in the
1990s after industrial activity had ceased.
Local schools and residents got involved in the
project to showcase material they had
produced during an exhibition in 2010.
As a visible and permanent reminder of the
site’s history, there is now a heritage trail
across the old airfield, with ten boards and a
paper guide.
A 1934 navigation beacon has also been
restored, returned and installed on Mosquito
Drive.
de Havilland administraion
building in 1953.

Luton Hats
Explore the key role Luton has played in the British hat industry.
Sharing knowledge
Luton dominates the history of the British hat
industry with manufacturing in the town dating
back to the 17th century.
In the 19th century straw plaiting and the wool
felt trade reached a peak.
In partnership with Luton Museum, Dr Jennifer
Young and the University of Hertfordshire's
creative writing students are using the Museum's
hat collection to devise and deliver education
sessions for primary school children.
The live sessions are being captured in an education
pack, which can be used by schools in the
county and delivered by museum staff
Hats

New towns
Investigate experiments in urban living through this
Heritage Hub project.
Urban growth
Hertfordshire is the site of garden cities,
including Letchworth and Welwyn Garden
City, and of modernist new towns, such as
Stevenage.
Their histories encapsulate:
-20th-century urban development
-new ways of imagining urban life, living,
transport and environments
-the experiences of making lives in new
places.
The future of towns
In exploring the histories and heritage of new
towns, this project draws on expertise in town
planning, creative arts and the humanities.
The New Towns project asks questions like:
-What is the legacy of new towns?
-What is distinctive about them for residents
and policy makers?
-What makes a sustainable community?
-Learning from the history of 20th century
new towns, how should we re-think urban
life and structures and environments for the
21st century?

Low Carbon Pasts, Low Carbon Futures
What can we learn from history and how does thinking with
history enhance policy and place making?
Making the connections
Western societies are accustomed to high levels of
energy consumption, but this has not always been the
case.
Comfort, progress and prosperity are experiences which
vary across human societies in different times and places.
History contributes a memory bank that stores, reflects
on and evaluates human experiences and alternative
outcomes.
Learn about the past with an eye to the future in this Heritage
Hub project which explores:
-urban design
-transport
-economic sustainability
-landscapes

Oral Histories
Oral history is a powerful method of capturing experiences, memories and feelings.
It is the only form of historical evidence directly open to follow-up questions.
Boro Memories
Oral History team members from the University of Hertfordshire
pioneered a ‘parachute drop’ interview format
as part of a project with Stevenage Football Club.
Held in October 2011, students and staff led by Senior
Research Fellow in the School of Humanities, Andrew
Green, set out to capture the memories of Stevenage FC
fans.
The team interviewed 70 people in a single day to create
a bank of oral history recordings and film.

The collection at Shaw's Corner
This collaborative project between the
National Trust and Dr Pat Simpson at the
University of Hertfordshire’s School of Creative
Arts aims to provide scholarly information
on playwright, politician and philosopher
George Bernard Shaw.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council, the initiative hopes to give
a greater understanding to the collection on
display at Shaw’s Corner to benefit:
-visitors
-staff
-volunteer guides
-the National Trust
-the academic community
George Bernard Shaw
Learn more about the Irish playwright during his time in Hertfordshire.
Examining the past
Artefacts and materials that embody Shaw’s
enduring engagement with Fabian socialist principles
are currently being researched by University
of Hertfordshire PhD student Alice McEwan.
These items are being given context by analysing
the shifting definitions of ‘modernity’
between 1906 – when Shaw moved in to his
Hertfordshire home – and 1950 when he donated
the house and its content to the National
Trust.
Artefacts include:
-elements of Jaeger clothing
-Shaw’s concern with having a plumbed-in
bathroom
-the use of ‘arts and crafts’ furniture and fitting
in both his house and the staging of his plays
Working together
This is the second collaboration between the
University of Hertfordshire and Shaw’s Corner.
In 1989, the Faculty of Engineering undertook
an investigative project into the restoration and
reconstruction of Shaw’s circularly moveable
writing hut.

Patterning Hitchin Lives
Clothes for celebration, work and play.
History through clothing
Patterning Hitchin Lives is a community project bringing
different generations together to capture the meaning of
clothing through oral histories and creative writing.
Our multi-strand project encourages participation in the arts
and fosters experiences essential to creating community
cohesion and sustainability.
Patterning Hitchin Lives is a collaboration between:
-Hitchin Museum
-Hitchin Girls’ School
The project has been generously funded by the Ashley
Family Foundation.

Sharing history
The memories of local film and TV veterans form
a key part of our unique film and television heritage.
They are the authentic voice of the story of how
film and television has grown and prospered in
Elstree and Borehamwood since 1914.
The Elstree Project, a group of local volunteers,
is committed to capturing this heritage by:
-recording
-preserving
-and sharing
The Elstree Project
Preserving the memories of men and women behind
film and television productions.
Working together
The group has entered into a formal partnership
with the University of Hertfordshire and
the 3 year Film and TV course at the School of
Creative Arts.
Working with staff and students to plan,
record and edit interviews, we have recently
completed our 32nd interview across a wide
range of craft skills.
The group has been endorsed by the Oral
History Project of media industry union
BECTU.

History of Public Health in Hertfordshire
Keep in touch with our oral history project examining the history of public health
in Hertfordshire between 1932-2012.
Personal accounts
The history of public health in Hertfordshire has been documented
in many forms, but there are still gaps.
One area which has not been chronicled is the perspectives
of the people of Hertfordshire themselves - their oral histories.
Researchers from the University of Hertfordshire are working
with the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit in Southampton
to carry out an oral history project on the history of public
health in Hertfordshire from 1932 to the present day.
Child health
One of the earliest protagonists of public health and particularly
maternal and child health was Margaret Burnside.
Margaret’s meticulous record-keeping of births in Hertfordshire
was instrumental in establishing the Hertfordshire
Cohort Studies (HCS).
HCS members have been sharing their memories and experiences
of public health in Hertfordshire, such as what it was
like to be a child with measles, or to take children to the
health clinic, or to be a mother in childbirth.
They provide a rich source of information about Hertfordshire’s
public health history in which local people have
played a major part.
The project aims to put these conversations together in a
book.

+44 (0) 1707 284800
herts.ac.uk
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