This fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Berkhamsted has changed and developed over the last century.

This fascinating selection of photographs traces some of the many ways in which Watford has changed and developed over the last century.

This brilliantly written memoir takes the reader on a journey into the past, to a rural England long gone, when horses worked the fields and small boys spent most of their time outdoors. Ken Sears was born in 1934 to a poor farming family in Hertfordshire - the fifth child of what would be eleven. He learns how to fend for himself at an early age. His boyhood life coincides with wartime, evacuees and American GIs arriving in his home town of Hemel Hempstead (the 'Treacle Bumpstead' of the title). At the age of nine he is caught stealing eggs and accused of killing a chicken (which he denies to this day) and is sent to reform school for five years. So begins a punishing existence, but it breeds a tough teenager, and after learning the trade of bricklaying he is called up to do his National Service in 1952. So begins his adventures in the Army, in Europe and Korea, where the ever-plucky Ken - who has an eye for the ladies and is always landing himself in trouble - finds not-always legal ways to make life that bit easier. After the Army he comes back to England and sets up a building business. From there he sees his home town change out of all recognition. The story is a characterful testament to the resourceful generation of the men who did National Service, fought wars, built towns and stood up to everything in their way. Ken's story reads like 'Commando Comics meets Fred Dibnah'.

Excerpt from Hemel Hempstead Through the Ages Those who recall their history will remember the occasion of the founding of this ancient Abbey. Offa, like many a potentate before him and since, was ambitious and, it would seem, unscrupu lous. Not content with the kingdom of Mercia, which embraced the greater part of the centre of England, he cast covetous eyes on the kingdom of the east-angles, of which Ethelbert was king. He invited this king to his court, and it may be that the court was at Berkhampstead, and baited the trap with promise of the hand of his daughter. Ethelbert was foully murdered, and the east-angles came under the sway of Offa. Matthew Paris, that diligent historian of the Abbey of St. Albans, to whom we owe so much because of his careful account of events in English life, and who, moreover, had at hand in the library of the Abbey records left by his predecessors, excuses the perfidy of the act and seeks to exonerate the great Offa. But his comments were made round about the year 1240, by which time the vastness of the Monastery and Abbey and their magnificence and wealth attested to the worth of the founder, rather than to the opposite. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A history of a firm of paper makers.

A mix of social history and the funny, wild adventures of a boy growing up in the new town of Hemel Hempstead through the post-war 1950s to the disco era of the 1970s: anecdotes about how things were then. Discover what our schooling was like then, how he played freely in the open fields, who the odd numbers were, and why he had an obsession with science fiction and airguns. These are the Salad days of the Newtown Naughty Boy.

The authors preceive a trend in the study and practice of groundwater hydrology. They see a science that is emerging from its geological roots and its early hydraulic applications into a full-fledged environmental science. They see a science that is becoming more interdisciplinary in nature and of greater importance in the affairs of man. This book is their response, and they have provided a text that is suited to the study of groundwater during this period of emergence.