Programme

Heritage Open Days 2026

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.

Winter talks at the Civic Centre

Berkhamsted Local History & Museum Society meetings take place at 8:00pm in the Civic Centre, Berkhamsted from Sep to Mar. Visitors are always welcome @ £5 at the door.

Winter on the canal in Berkhamsted
Winter on the canal in Berkhamsted

9 Sep 2026
The History of Bletchley Park
from its creation in 1919 through to its evolution into Bletchley Park, the codebreaking and intelligence factory in WW11
Mike Barbakoff

14 Oct 2026
A History of Berkhamsted
using unused photos for the 1990 Berkhamsted book A Hertfordshire Valley  by Scott Hastie and David Spain
David Spain

11 Nov 2026
Berkhamsted‘s buried Builders
Discover stories about the lives and work of some of the architects, builders, and others who shaped Berkhamsted’s most notable buildings, all now resting in Rectory Lane Cemetery.
Chris Dolton

9 Dec 2026
The History of Berkhamsted Common
An important talk about ‘ The history of Berkhamsted Common’ through its landscape… traces, revelations, erasures and omissions
Jenny Sedgewick

3 Jan 2027
History of the Grand Junction Canal
Fabian studied the social impact of the coming of the Grand Junction Canal in West Hertfordshire (1791 to 1841) as an MA student at the University of Hertfordshire. He’ll present the local effects on the towns and parishes along the canal, including Berkhamsted, and give his thoughts on who benefitted from it (and who did not) in those first few years.
Fabian Hiscock

10 Feb 2027
HS2 Digs
Recent discoveries in Eastern Buckingham due to HS2. An update on discoveries, methods and processes used in modern archaeological digs.
Lucy Lawrence

10 Mar 2027
History of Coaching Inns 
Learn about the dangers of travelling by stage coach and the importance to the prosperity of the towns en route.  Some of the important coaching inns in Berkhamsted, an important route from London, are still in use and still identifiable in the High Street today.
Julian Hunt
(this talk preceded by AGM)