Hatfield, Hertfordshire

Hatfield
The Old Palace at Hatfield House
Hatfield
Hatfield shown within Hertfordshire
Population	39,202 (2011 Census)[1]
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

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,^[2] increasing to 39,201 at the 2011 Census.^[1] The settlement 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. Hatfield is 20 miles (30 kilometres) north of London and is connected to the capital via the A1(M) and direct trains to London King's Cross, Finsbury Park and Moorgate. As a result, the town has seen a recent increase in commuters who work in London moving to the area.^[3]

History

Early history

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 in the final Domesday record.^[4] No other records remain 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.

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

The Comet; the carving of the pillar is by Eric Kennington

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.^[5] It was taken over by Hawker Siddeley in 1960 and merged into British Aerospace in 1978.^[6] 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.

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.

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

Hatfield New Town centre, looking west along its axis.

The Abercrombie Plan for London in 1944 proposed a New Town in Hatfield. It was designated in the New Towns Act 1946, forming part of the initial Hertfordshire group with nearby Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth. The Government allocated 2,340 acres (9.5 km²) for Hatfield New Town, with a population target of 25,000.^[5] (By 2001 the population had reached 27,833.^[7]) 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."^[5] 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.^[5]

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.

Governance

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).

Climate

Hatfield experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) like most of the United Kingdom.

Culture and recreation

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 Odeon cinema, a stately home (Hatfield House), a museum (Mill Green Museum), a contemporary art gallery (Art and Design Gallery), a theatre (The Weston Auditorium) and a music venue (The Forum Hertfordshire). There are shopping centres in the new town: the Galleria (indoor shopping centre), The Stable Yard (Hatfield House), and at two supermarkets (ASDA and Tesco).

Sport

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

The town also has one public swimming pool, and four sports/leisure centres (two with indoor swimming pools).

Education

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

• Hatfield House.
• Hatfield War Memorial
• The Forum Hertfordshire (music venue) University of Hertfordshire. In 2011, the music video for Ed Sheeran’s Lego House, featuring Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint, was filmed in Hatfield. Filming took place at The Forum venue, located on University of Hertfordshire, College Lane campus. Filming of the video took place during Sheeran’s performance at the venue on 8 October 2011. Many students were involved during filming, as they made up most of the audience at the Forum that day.^[9]
• Mill Green Museum and watermill.
• Art and Design Gallery (contemporary art gallery) University of Hertfordshire.
• The Weston Auditorium (theatre and cinema) University of Hertfordshire.
• The Galleria.
• Hatfield Business Park, former de Haviland plant, later Base Systems Hatfield, used as a location for Saving Private Ryan (film) and Band of Brothers (TV series).

Transport

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

The East Coast railway line from London to York runs through the town, separating the old and new parts. A commuter service connects Hatfield railway station to London King's Cross. A new railway station and car park opened in late 2015. The frequent train service runs directly from Hatfield Station to London King's Cross via Finsbury Park (Victoria Underground Line), taking about 16 minutes to Finsbury Park and 21 minutes to London King's Cross on the fast trains, which run two to three times an hour. An additional train service calls at all stations to Moorgate in the City of London.

There was a fatal rail crash at Hatfield in 2000, which brought track maintenance deficiencies to public attention.^[10] A garden beside the East Coast Main Line was built as a memorial to the crash victims.

Notable residents

Alphabetical by group. Information not found on the Wikipedia page of the person concerned must be referenced.

Business

• Michael Birch, founder of the social network BEBO, lived in Hatfield.
• Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, founder of De Havilland Aircraft Company
• Jack Olding (Henry John Douglas Olding), wartime tank and tractor importer, came from Hatfield.

Music and dance

• Babe Ruth, a 1970s rock band, came from Hatfield.^[11]
• Colin Blunstone of The Zombies lived in Hatfield.
• Martin Carthy, folk musician, was born in Hatfield.
• Sandra Conley, principal dancer with the Royal Ballet.^[12]
• Donovan Leitch, folk singer, came from Hatfield.
• Barbara Gaskin, pop singer, No.1 with It's My Party
• Duncan James, member of the boy band Blue, lived in Hatfield.
• Alan Shacklock, pop musician and record producer, lived in Hatfield.
• Sal Solo, rock singer, was born in Hatfield.
• Mick Taylor, Rolling Stones guitarist 1969–1974, grew up in Hatfield.
• Tracey Thorn, lead singer of Everything But The Girl, was born in Hatfield and attended Bishops Hatfield Girls School.

Politics

• William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, prime minister, was buried at St Etheldreda Church.
• George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen lived at Brocket Hall.
• Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, prime minister
• Malcolm Wicks, Labour Party politician and Minister for Energy, was born in Hatfield.

Religion

• Walter Curle, Bishop of Winchester and a close supporter of William Laud, was born in Hatfield.
• Cardinal Morton and Bishop of Ely, built Hatfield Old Palace.

Royalty and nobility

• Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
• Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury lived at Hatfield House and was buried at St Etheldreda Church.
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury
• Elizabeth Tudor, later Queen Elizabeth I, lived at Hatfield House (Hatfield Old Palace).

Science and scholarship

• LH Sumanadasa, aviator and university founder, learned to fly at Hatfield.^[13]
• John Tradescant the elder, botanist, gardener and naturalist, was head gardener at Hatfield House.

Sports

• Matthew Connolly, QPR defender, lived and attended primary school in Hatfield.
• Iain Dowie, former West Ham player, QPR manager & BBC pundit, was born and brought up in Hatfield and studied mechanical engineering at the University of Hertfordshire.^[14]
• Rev. Valentine Faithfull, first class cricketer, was born in Hatfield.
• Rodney Marsh, QPR footballer, is from Hatfield.
• Francis Pember, first class cricketer, was born in Hatfield.
• Billy Joe Saunders, WBO middleweight world champion boxer

Stage, media and film

• Sanjeev Bhaskar, comedian and broadcaster, lived in Hatfield whilst studying at the University of Hertfordshire.
• John Cazabon, actor on stage, screen and radio, was born in Hatfield.
• Pippa Haywood, television, stage and radio actress, was born in Hatfield.
• Diane-Louise Jordan, television presenter, grew up in Hatfield.
• David Kossoff, broadcaster and father of Paul Kossoff of the 1960s rock band Free, lived in Hatfield.
• Derek Martin, actor known for role of Charlie Slater in EastEnders
• Guy Ritchie, film director famous for Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, was born in Hatfield^[15]

Writing

• Moniza Alvi, poet and writer, grew up in Hatfield.
• Barbara Cartland, author of romances, lived in Hatfield.
• Geoffrey Drage, non-fiction writer and politician, was born in Hatfield.
• Nathaniel Lee, poet and playwright, was born in Hatfield, where his father was rector.

Nearby towns and villages

See also

• Council of Hatfield

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References