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The week in history November 19
1908 - 100 years ago
TWO young men were called into court for bullying boarders at Berkhamsted Boys' School.
The pair were hauled before the court after spending 12 months throwing chestnuts, knocking off hats and pushing boys to the floor.
Boarders had been instructed not to retaliate by their school teacher, Dr Fry, who wanted to quell rivalry between 'town' boys and 'school' boys.
Eventually Dr Fry decided that if action was not taken the boys would start fighting back, leading to 'disturbances in the streets'.
The report read that the town boys were being made an example of, because 'If this was not done there would be a fear of retaliation and they would have scenes on their streets which fortunately they had not at the present time'.
THE MAYOR'S chauffeur crashed into an Apsley cyclist as he drove in Hemel Hempstead.
The cyclist was hurled into the road in the accident.
He was passing under a rail bridge en route to Boxmoor when he collided with the car.
A local hotel owner helped him inside and insisted he go to West Herts Hospital, where his injuries were found to be severe bruising.
The only occupants of
the mayoral car were the driver and 'a lady'.
A BERKHAMSTED couple were advised to 'use the stick' on their nine year old son who refused to go to school.
They told the court that they sent him but he would not go.
The Justice's Clerk, Mr Lovel Smeathman, told the couple they ought to be able 'to control a lad of nine' and that they should 'administer the stick'. The boy's father was fined five shillings.
1958 - 50 years ago
THE DATE was announced for work to begin on Hemel Hempstead's brand new
cinema.
Reports gave January as the month in which the building of the town's new luxury, modern cinema would commence.
A POND in Berkhamsted was in such a state that a moorhen was seen to turn its nose up and walk away from it, Berkhamsted councillors were told.
The pond, which had once been 'pretty and filled with fishes' was now stagnant, overgrown and swarming with flies. At a meeting of Berkhamsted Rural District Council, councillors discussed the pond at Puttenham that was preventing access to the telephone box nearby.
The landowner was said to dump 'farm-sludge' into it, made worse since a bomb fell on the pond causing the sides to cave in and it to become more shallow.
Councillor Mrs E Ewart said: "I was there with the council's surveyor when a moorhen came up to the side of the pond, turned its nose up and walked away. "It's quite impossible to get anywhere near the pond." Councillors agreed to issue the landowner a statutory notice to clean it up.
TWO bottles of spirits and 120 cigarettes were stolen from a sports club in Hemel Hempstead.
The items were taken from the premises on Farland Road on a Friday night.
1983 - 25 years ago
HEMEL Hempstead Hospital received a 6million expansion and facelift.
Members of the Dacorum Hospital Action Group were among the guests at an official ceremony to mark the beginning of the work.
The long awaited scheme involved building a five storey block containing three wards with 84 beds, an intensive care unit, three operating theatres and theatre sterile supply unit, a rehabilitation unit consulting suite, dental department, medical records department, kitchen and dining room.
The local health authority said the improvements were important to Dacorum because of its 120,000 population.
Improvements were also planned for the existing boiler house, hospital stores and X ray and pathology departments and work was expected to take up to four years to complete.
The manager of building firm the Walter Lawrence Construction Company
said it was 'a momentous
day for local people and the result of much hard work for the future dreams and aspirations of the hospital'.
MUMS threatened to stop traffic on the newly built Link Road in Hemel Hempstead unless a better crash barrier was put in place to protect their children.
Concerned parents said the two feet high crash barrier was not safe enough for their children to enter Hammond JMI School's rear gate.
They were leading a
campaign for a six feet high fence to stop pupils dashing out onto the road, which lay just 10 feet from the school gate.
Contractors had offered to build a four feet high chain link fence between the school and a nearby pedestrian subway to stop the children taking short cuts, but the offer was dismissed.
The determined mums
instead held a protest at the site to campaign for their
original request.
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Weather for Hemel Hempstead
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -3 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: South
