From creation in 1919 through to evolution into Bletchley Park, the codebreaking and intelligence factory in WWII. The History of Bletchley Park by Mike Barbakoff on 9 Sep 2026 at 8:00pm in the Civic Centre, Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £5 at the door.
Come and celebrate Berkhamsted’s architecture and culture at this year’s Heritage Open Days
This year’s HODs will be between 11 and 20 Sep 2026.
Click here for a list of this year’s walks and tours.
More information on the Heritage Open Days website.
All events are Free but must be booked via Eventbrite UK from 17 Aug.
UPDATE:
You can sponsor a square of the Castle Fields here when the Berkhamsted Castle website is updated this weekend!
“Berkhamsted Castle… is the geographical key to a small pocket of Chiltern countryside, where the defence of rural values in the face of urban expansion has been fought with unique vigour, obstinacy and success. If any part of Britain merits examination as a landscape laboratory, this is it – the area bounded on the south by the new town of Hemel Hempstead and on the north by the startling chalk dome of Ivinghoe Beacon. An area of winding Saxon lanes, straggling villages, great houses of cathedral proportions, beech trees soaring like redwoods, drunken Tudor farmhouses and those sudden, unexpected aquatint vistas. To find it you must first walk up the long hill road from Berkhamsted Castle to the waste of Berkhamsted Common, a plateau of gorse, bracken, thorn and golf flags. The air is sharp and heavily scented.
The village of Water End, Hertfordshire, with Gaddesden in the background. The fragility of the view is unnerving. Add one building, or chop a tree, and it would burst like a bubble”. (Brian Dunning, Country Life, 11 Aug 1966).
We’re still fighting in “defence of rural values in the face of urban expansion”! Donate here to save Castle Fields.
We will be holding a bonus talk on Wednesday 8th April at 8.00pm in the Civic Centre, High Street, Berkhamsted. This will be following our AGM, so members please arrange to be seated by 19:45.
Here is another chance to hear James Moir talking about the recent acquisition, thanks to a loan by a generous benefactor, of Castle Fields, the historical reasons for doing so and the ongoing plans to raise the sum of £500,000 over two years to pay back the loan. As a bonus talk and to make this available to as many people as possible, there will be no fee for visitors to this talk, so why not bring a friend? (only members will be eligible to vote at the AGM).
If you can’t make it in person, check out this detailed talk (on YouTube) given on 19 Feb 2026 by Berkhamsted Castle Trust’s trustee James Moir about the distant and recent history of Castle Fields, how they have been reprieved from the danger of development, the need to repay the loan and the plans to raise the funds. Donate here to save Castle Fields…
BLH&MS talk: Berkhamsted in 50 buildings by Paul Rabbitts on 11 Feb 2026 at 8:00pm in the Civic Centre, Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £5 at the door.
Discover the history of our town and how it developed by way of 50 buildings. Paul has written many books and his latest ‘Berkhamsted in 50 buildings’ is available from 15 Feb 2026.
BLH&MS talk: Intelligence Networks behind enemy lines in WWI and WWII by Helen Fry on 14 Jan 2026 at 8:00pm in the Civic Centre, Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £5 at the door.
A compelling account of agents, spies, couriers and heads of intelligence who risked their lives and found ingenious ways to smuggle intelligence. They sent coded messages knitted in jumpers and ran entire sections behind enemy lines. Operators sent over 800 radio messages to London and delivered more than 1000 reports. Helen has authored and edited over 25 books covering the social history of WWII including British Intelligence, the secret war, espionage, spies, and MI9 escapes and evasion.
The Society’s 75th Anniversary Celebration, with cake and drinks, starts at 7:00 pm on Wed 10 Sep 2025 in the Civic Centre, Berkhamsted. Visitors are always welcome @ £5 at the door.
An evening of personal reminiscences by those who have lived in Berkhamsted for all or most of the last 75 years, including readings from Richard Mabey’s “love affair” about growing up in Berkhamsted from his book Home Country.
Come and celebrate Berkhamsted’s architecture and culture at this year’s Heritage Open Days
This year’s HODs will be between 12 and 21 Sep 2025
More information on our Programme page
Berkhamsted Local History & Museum Society 