Wed 11 Dec 2024 at 8pm in the Wellcome Great Hall, Town Hall Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £5 at the door. Opening at 7pm for complimentary festive drinks and nibbles.

“A look at the Christmas story and customs with a bit of local history” by Rev Canon Dr John Kirkby.

John was the Vicar of Potten End and Nettleden from 1992 to 2008 and has lived in Berkhamsted since his retirement. He was previously the Vicar of parishes in Bedfordshire and Surrey and was the first full time Chaplain of what is now the University of Hertfordshire. Before his ordination he had short careers in Engineering and Teaching. John was a keen cricketer and played until he was 53. He now enjoys playing geriatric golf!

Alan Cummins (BLH&MS Member) takes us through a mixture of local and national mementoes, some trivial, some funny and some tragic! It’s on Wed 13 Nov 2024 at 8pm in the Wellcome Great Hall, Town Hall Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £5 at the door.

Growing up in a small town, comedian Mel Byron learnt about life from Bette Davis, Cary Grant and all those glamorous movie stars. Mel shares with you her love of film, in the company of some of those stars. Glamour and laughter guaranteed. Wed 9 Oct 2024 at 8pm in the Wellcome Great Hall, Town Hall Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £5 at the door.

BLH&MS talk on Wed 11 Sep 2024 at 8pm in the Wellcome Great Hall, Town Hall Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £5 at the door.

Local train enthusiast Rob Freeman will share his photos and experiences of the changes that have occurred on our Berkhamsted train line.

In 2025 Berkhamsted Local History & Museum Society celebrates its 75th anniversary. We would love to hear your stories of growing up or living in Berkhamsted. We will be sharing memory joggers on this page over the next few months.

Come and celebrate Berkhamsted’s architecture and culture at this year’s Heritage Open Days

This year’s HODs will be between 6 and 15 Sep 2024
Click here for HODs 2024 pdf file
Click here for details on HODs website

Comments by Alan Crosby, Editor of The Local Historian, about the British Association for Local History’s Publication Awards 2024:

“A lot of really good work is done locally but it never sees any national coverage, it’s never given a wider exposure. This is one way of drawing attention to the fact that local journals have a great deal of value in them.”

Louise Keil won third place in the long articles section with her Henry Lane & Son of Berkhamsted 1798-1945 in The Chronicle, vol.XX, Mar 2023.

Alan continues: “It appeared in The Chronicle which is the journal of the Berkhamsted Local History & Museum Society. The Chronicle is a fairly modest publication, it’s not big and glossy, it’s fairly modest and it has a relatively low budget for a small Society but it produces good work and this is an example of that“.

He goes on to describe Louise’s article about the family that ran our local nursery, an activity that is almost forgotten now but showing how significant it was when it was flourishing.

More information – Flyer

BLH&MS talk on Wed 14 Feb 2024 at 8pm in the Wellcome Great Hall, Town Hall Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £3 at the door.
The Red Lion of St Albans, by Jon Mein.
A social history of public houses. The provision of inns across the country expanded significantly over the 18th century in terms of numbers, scale and appointments. Was this the case in Hertfordshire?

The Five Bells in Berkhamsted is said to have been famous – or notorious – for bouts between bare-fisted fighters in the yard behind the inn (from Percy Birtchnell’s scrapbook of published articles).
Good to see the old name restored at The Five Bells restaurant.

BLH&MS talk on Wed 10 Jan 2024 at 8pm in the Wellcome Great Hall, Town Hall Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £3 at the door.

The Duke of Windsor and the Nazis, by Tony Eaton.
Dupe or Traitor? A closely-guarded secret of the Royal family.

Hitler with the Windsors (Illustrated London News, 30 Oct 1937)