book list
Despite its title this book is about Welwyn Garden City. I very much enjoyed
reading it when I first got my copy and have thumbed through it on numerous
occasions ever since.
The author (below) is a librarian but also historian and archaeologist. He approaches the subject from the history and archaeology of the villages around Welwyn Garden City - Welwyn, Tewin, Digswell, Ayot St Peter, Lemsford. During his historical account from Celts, Romans, Saxons, Normans to modern history he makes his account very interesting by continually projecting forward to the Garden City.
The account of Ebenezer Howard and how the land was purchased does not begin until page 99 in a chapter called Birth of a City, but all the earlier chapters are relevant. I love his account of Howard, Purdom and Osborn walking the site and seeing the cottages and farms that were there already.
The book is illustrated with 220 black and white pictures. There are many of old building, farms, houses, parks from before the time of Welwyn Garden City. There are pictures of residents of Welwyn Garden City - particularly during the war. There are pictures of the architecture of WGC. There are pictures of many of the leading figures in the founding and development of the town.
Below from the book are a page of Welwyn Garden City Churches; a picture of
Dorothy Hesse of WGC Music Club (who lived in Pentley Park close to where I
lived in Digswell Road, and whose assistant Elsie Wilson was my piano teacher);
and a VE day victory parade on the Campus.
click on the images for a better view