Piccotts End is aglow with Christmas lights at this time of the year. It’s always worth a trip down the road to see who’s put on the most spectacular show. From colourful tree arrangements to a modest festoon nearly everyone is joining in the Christmas spirit. Our house is making do with lights that are…
Piccotts End is teeming with musical talent, including Jane and Simon Lillystone on the classical front and contemporary composer Paul Borg. Alongside them I’ve discovered another musical maestro living below the village radar. You rarely find him at home so it was to the nearby village of Flaunden that I had to travel to track…
There is always a new tale about Piccotts End you’ve never heard before. At this week’s Harvest Festival I chanced to meet Alf Holland, the man behind the wall. The wall in question is the one that surrounds Park View Farm. Alf has been its owner since 1988 and though he has been in our…
The village daffodils have put on a great show this year, including many planted by residents in our Daffodil Day last December. They will take a couple of years to get established but have already added to some colour to the verges. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some more from the council when this…
It’s all change in the Old Town as the new year welcomes a flurry of new shops. From having just a few, there is now an abundance of coffee shops. There’s The Hive at the bottom, the Tea Tree up the hill, Artichoke in the middle, to the newest, Old Town Coffee and Cake towards…
Like the rest of Hertfordshire, Piccotts End abounds in beautiful flint walls. But there is just one problem with these iconic local building blocks. They keep falling off! You can always spot the fresh cement and slightly machined new flints where walls have been repaired around the village. The man responsible for many of these…
Litter is a scourge for which there is no quick fix. Everyone will have their own litter story and many go on personal crusades to keep the village tidy. At our end we have been contending with a litter problem of a slightly unusual variety – a nocturnal dipsomaniac who has been depositing empty wine…
When the Boar’s Head was a pub in Piccotts End it was indeed our local. These days you have to go a bit further to find one that’s worthy of the name. My favourite is the Crown & Sceptre at Briden’s Camp and I’ll often call by for a pint of IPA or a meal…
How’s your weight? Lockdown has had at least one beneficial effect for me. I’ve been doing a lot more walking and have a lost a few pounds as a result. I’ve never covered so many miles, traipsing along the picturesque towpaths of the Grand Union Canal near here. I love all those pretty brick bridges…
Once upon a time Hemel Old Town was bustling with people and alive with shops selling everything from fruit and veg to furniture. Today it’s a ghost town, empty, desolate and looking like something out of The War of the Worlds or The Day of the Triffids. But on our daily walk this week I…