Hemel Hempstead Through the Ages (Classic Reprint)

Angebote / Angebote:

Excerpt from Hemel Hempstead Through the Ages There are few small towns of undoubtedly ancient origin in this England of ours which call more insistently for description than does Hemel Hempstead, the Anglo-Saxon vill on the hillside, overlooking the sleepy Gade where it follows its gentle course to Two Waters, there to join the Bulbourne coming from the direction of Tring. Housing estates are opened, turf which has covered the sloping sides of our surrounding hills for thousands of years is cut in preparation for some new building enterprise, and bungalows and houses arise on every side like mushrooms, till the face of the country is altered, so that old landmarks fade, and few - not even the oldest inhabitants - can say for certain where the old town ended, and where this new addition commenced. Add to this new building the demolition of ancient houses, slums for the most part, erected, perhaps, in the breezy days of the great King Hal, and we see more landmarks fleeing, swept away by the arm of progress. Some there are who call this wholesale demolition vandalism. But they are not of the number who, because of poverty and low wages, or of a dearth of houses, were compelled to live in insanitary dwellings, damp, dark and rat-infested, with low ceilings, huddled close together and almost devoid of sanitary conveniences. Even these unfortunates clung in some cases to their hovels. But to-day, housed in the new dwellings provided for them, they sing a different tune, a contented tune, for the new regime has brought them to open spaces, to gardens, and up-to-date surroundings. 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.