100 years ago

A poem entitled 'From Rickmansworth to Tring' made it onto the pages of The Gazette.

Penned by a T Dyke Nunn, the poem concluded with the following paragraph.

To Ashley Green, we made our way,
Which place you'd not describe as gay,
But still 'gainst that I'd not inveigh.
Next, we, remembrance strong retains,
Went through a maze of country lanes,
Where shady hedge the road o'ershrouds,
But people do not go in crowds;
Devoid of houses, and e'en worse,
A guide post - ways proved so diverse
They did to longer walk coerce,
But yet I'd not their fame asperse,
As finally, they served to bring
Us, rather late, but still, to Tring.


50 years ago

Balloons released from Hemel Hempstead found their way to at least six different countries.

The balloon race began in Gadebridge Park where 1350 were released.

Slide rules and mathematical computing machines were kept in readiness to determine the distances they covered.

After a neck and neck race between returns from Germany and Austria, it was decided that Caroline Weaver, 17, of Hemel Hempstead outdistanced them all.

Her balloon was picked up in a town near Vienna, 800 miles from where Miss Weaver released it.

She was given a £5 prize. Second place went to Stephen Garyo, 43, of Hemel Hempstead, whose balloon was found in Czechoslovakia.

A model from Hemel Hempstead was making a splash in the beauty world.

Gill Henderson, of Felden Lane, Boxmoor, had appeared in a film by Max Bygrave and introduced competitors in the Miss World competition on television.

Miss Henderson was also given first place in an international beauty competition held in Austria and was a cover girl for a leading national women's magazine.

This was all in the blonde beauty's first year working in the modelling industry.

The Gazette reported that in her spare time Miss Henderson bred poodles.


Newly formed music duo, Knew Dimension, were looking for bookings in Hemel Hempstead.

Carl O'Connell, of Shrublands Hill in Berkhamsted, and Fiona Macray, of Bennetts End, Hemel Hempstead, wrote and performed synthesiser pop music.

The pair had been compared to 80s chart favourites Yazoo and were hoping to secure gigs at local pubs.

Anglers were in deep water after 'spoiling' a major clean up of Kings Langley's canal banks. Members of Gade Valley Improvement Association found the banks had been used 'like a rubbish tip' just two weeks after staging a major clean up campaign.

They blamed anglers for litter and rotting fish that was strewn on the banks.

The finger was pointed at anglers because the angling season had begun just two days after the cleaning session was held.

25 years ago

Thousands of Hemel Hempstead residents could finally tune in to new station Channel Four.

Would-be viewers had waited nine months since the launch of the channel the previous November.

Their ariels were tuned to the Bedmond relay transmitter that had not been adapted to receive Channel Four.

Neighbours in Hemel Hempstead won a campaign to have parking banned in their street.

Maynard Road residents fought to have parking restrictions enforced on their congested town-centre side cul-de-sac.

They had long complained that office workers and shoppers parked in front of their homes, blocking driveways and limiting space for emergency vehicles.

Dacorum Borough Council announced proposals to ban daytime parking on either side of the road.