Winter 2014 -15 Welcome to the Winter edition of the Newsletter. We have a new programme for 2015, so get out your diaries to make sure you don’t miss any of the events, especially those which need to be booked ahead of time. This year we have a guided walk around Hertford with an historical theme as well as our usual summer outing and party and our programme of lectures, so there will be something for everyone. Remember that guests are welcome at our lectures for a small charge, so if you have friends who might like to join the Society, they can come and try out the experience. Planning issues are very much to the fore as the District Plan continues its progress. The future of Hertford town centre is still far from clear and bus services are facing further cuts. All these matters are reported in detail in this newsletter. If the Society is to be influential on these issues, we need to show that we represent a substantial body of opinion. You can help by checking that your membership and subscription details are up to date and by taking part in any consultations we may hold by email. Please see details on p4 and p12. On a more cheerful note, the sculpture commemorating Alfred Russel Wallace is now in place, adding to the visual quality of the town (reported on p8). The official unveiling was accompanied by music from the Richard Hale School Band (see right), which helped to attract the crowds. We wish all our readers a very happy and prosperous New Year. 1 SERVING OUR MEMBERS PROGRAMME 2015 Here is a summary of our events: further details are provided on Contents the programme card. Pubs and their place: how pubs have featured on Hertford’s streets Lecture, 18 March 2015 Caring for Hertford Les Middlewood, pubs expert and Vice Chairman of the local CAMRA Planning Matters p4 group, will be taking us on a virtual pub crawl. It will embrace pubs District Plan p6 past, present and future, with a little technical assistance beforehand and on the night from Joe Saunders. How come we Proposed Cuts to Bus Services have an apparently ever-diminishing collection of pubs in Hertford? p7 How have our pubs been changing? What happens next? This should be fun, I can say confidently, even without actually entering Van Hage & Waitrose Planning any licensed premises. Application p7 AGM followed by talk: How to look after your Old Master, 15 April Wallace Sculpture Unveiled p8 2015 After the formal business of the AGM, local architect and founding Serving Our Members secretary of HCS David Kirby will give us a light-hearted talk. It’s not about looking after a retired school teacher, but takes us into Programme 2015 p2 an elevated realm of art history. While most of us do not try things like this at home, David did once, for some years, take charge of a Subscriptions 2015 p4 baroque painting – the identity of the artist will be revealed at the Committee Members and AGM. Contact Details p6-7 Visit to Rochester in Kent, 6 May 2015 Membership Form p12 If you’ve never been to Rochester, perhaps you should think of it as Previous Talks to Members: a Durham of the South. There’s a huge Norman castle and a lovely Romanesque cathedral nestling side by side just off the High Street. The Value of Public Art Various ancient houses have links with Charles Dickens or helped to Commissions p9 inspire settings in his novels. Nikolaus Pevsner in the relevant volume of his definitive ‘Buildings of England’ series devotes almost The Disappearing River Beane 30 pages to the place (by comparison, Hertford and Hertingfordbury p10 together get only 10 pages). The west front of Rochester cathedral is described by Pevsner as “logical, balanced and well- proportioned, which can be said of very few Norman facades in A Wider View England.” In particular, the carvings around the west doorway make it “the most French piece of 12th century sculpture in Civic Voice Update p11 England”, though he also notes that it has been put together in a way that is not slavishly French. A highly successful visit by this society in 2014 to another historic place in Kent, in that case to Hertford Civic Society is a Faversham, prompted more than one member to suggest Rochester registered charity No.266111 for 2015. 2 SERVING OUR MEMBERS Rochester has an active civic society, which is would potentially be denying someone else the keen to show us round in the morning, leaving us opportunity to take part. You can contact free to make individual decisions for the Malcolm by email, by phone (no ansafone) or by afternoon. At £25 a head for coach and tour, the post; his contact details are given elsewhere in cost is actually slightly less than it was last year, this Newsletter (see p6). If the tour is very partly reflecting a shorter journey time, popular, we have a contingency plan to re-run hopefully not too much over an hour. So do put the tour later the same day, starting at 9 pm. If the date 6 May in your diary or calendar for you have any questions, please do not hesitate 2015. to contact Malcolm. Summer party 10 June 2015 Hertford and its landscape: a look at the development of the town with particular Courtesy of Fay and Geoffrey Thornton, our reference to maps, plans and illustrations from annual summer party will be at Whitacre, at the the 17th and 18th centuries top of Port Hill in Bengeo, with splendid views Lecture, 18 November 2015 out over Hertford. Price £15. As there is no parking near the house, it will be necessary to Our final speaker is Anne Rowe, well known use the public car park at Hartham or on-street locally as President of the East Herts parking in Port Vale, where there is a pedestrian Archaeological Society. Anne is also a widely- entrance to Whitacre (in addition to that at the published author on local landscapes and is top of Port Hill), starting from the lodge house familiar to some of you as a lively WEA lecturer. close to the barrier across the road. While her talk has a historical theme, it also carries extra resonances at a time when East Crime and punishment walk 8 July 2015 Herts Council is updating its plans for the Elizabeth Eastwood, an excellent local tour district. guide, will take us round the last remains or the Our venues sites of courts, prisons and other places concerned with offending over the centuries in The normal venue is still the church hall in St Hertford, such as the stocks. She will also be John’s Street, for our lectures in March and retelling the stories of some of the more famous November 2015, as also for the AGM in April or notorious crimes or cases connected with (starting 8.00pm, refreshments 7.45pm). these locations, like that of the ‘flying However, the crime and punishment walk, on 8 highwayman’. She occasionally does similar tours July, does not involve the church hall, but starts on behalf of the Town Council, but this walk will instead (at the earlier hour of 7.00pm) in be exclusively for members of Hertford Civic Salisbury Square. And the trip to Rochester Society. All the arrangements are necessarily starts from close to Hertford East station. If you different from our normal ones. The tour will have comments or queries about any aspect of start from Salisbury Square by the fountain at the programme, please do not hesitate to 7.00 pm. It will last around 90 minutes, with contact Malcolm Ramsay (01992 500002). For probably a brief pause at some point. As further details of our activities, please see the numbers are limited to 20 you are strongly printed annual programme, which also provides advised to pre-book with Malcolm Ramsay. There additional contact details for Malcolm, as does is no fee payable by Civic Society members (non- this newsletter. members £4 if numbers permit), but anyone who registers and then does not turn up for the tour 3 CARING FOR HERTFORD Our public address system application has not yet been decided, but the planning officers made it clear that they would At the church hall, thanks to an initiative by not recommend approval unless steps were John Bevan, we have been trying out a mic and taken to protect neighbouring residents from public address system, to ensure that our noise and light pollution. We understand that lecturers are fully audible, and indeed that we local objectors have met Councillors and can address each other audibly. We are still representatives of the school, and revised learning how best to do this: any feedback is drawings have now been put in, but the welcome. Environmental Health officers are still urging Malcolm Ramsay refusal. The application will be decided by the Council’s Development Management Committee SUBSCRIPTIONS 2015 in the New Year. A reminder that subscriptions are due in Hertford Golf Course: January. If you pay by standing order there is Hertford Heath members in particular will have nothing for you to do. If you pay by cash or been pleased to learn that the plans to re-mould cheque please send to the membership the topography of the proposed course on secretary, address and subscription rates on the London Road by bringing in substantial quantities last page of this newsletter. If you do not pay by of inert waste were thrown out by the County standing order I would urge you to consider Council.