I have just had the latest newsletter (No. 72, Autumn 2013) from the
Dacorum Heritage Trust - which provides a museum service for Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring, and the other villages in the modern borough of Dacorum. It includes the exciting news that public discussions are now underway with a view to the Bury, Hemel Hempstead, becoming a museum for the Borough.
The information of immediate importance is that the newsletter contains information that there will be limited viewing of the medieval wall paintings at Piccotts End, Hemel Hempstead, on 12-15th September, but numbers are limited and you need to book in advance if you want to go.
The newsletter itself is double length and covers the 20 years the Trust has been in existence, and if you have been interested in the way heritage issues have been developing in the area it is well worth a read. The web site (address unchanged at
http://www.dacorumheritage.org.uk/) has been redone, although it is obviously still waiting for more information to be uploaded. For instance the links page does not yet include all the member society sites - there is no link to the
Tring Local History Society, The
Tring Local History Museum, or the
Natural History Museum at Tring. Perhaps it might be appropriate to include links to other sites which are relevant to Dacorum's Heritage - such as
A2A (which included part of the DHT own catalogue) and to
other museums in Hertfordshire. Perhaps even the
Tring pages on
this site ot the
Leverstock Green Chronicle might get a mention. It will be interesting to see if the new curator, Dr Paul Hyman gives the site a more outwards looking feel. The first curator, Matt Wheeler, seemed to realise that there were people all over the world who were interested in the heritage of the area, but who would find it difficult to actually visit the area. After he left the Trust seem to become more inward looking - with an emphasis on school education, and the heritage page in the Gazette. I am sure that there will be great improvements under the new curator and will report here again once the new web site has settled in.
