December 2024
Samuel Pepys kept his diary for 10 years between 1660 and 1670. It was a tumultuous time. The Restoration of the Monarchy with King Charles the 2nd, the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. Pepys had plenty to write about and a fascinating read it is too. He only stopped because he feared for his eyesight after years
August 2021
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…
January 2020
The festive season is over for another year and residents marked the Twelfth Night finale with a gathering at the Marchmont Arms. It was one of PERA’s best attended events with residents young and old, recent and longstanding, enjoying drinks and nibbles organised by our social secretary Annette Harrison.
November 2015
More than 70 residents enjoyed pork rolls and pyrotechnics at the annual village fireworks party. The event, which had to be postponed earlier in the month owing to bad weather, took place at Marchmont Cottage with fireworks provided by Fantastic Fireworks.
December 213
It’s Christmas Day and for the first time in many years there has been no snow this month. Remember about 4 years ago when Hemel came to a halt in mid-December and the snow stayed until January? Today has been sunny, mild and dry, just like most Christmases. Yesterday we went to the children’s carol service at St Mary’s Church. It was just as well
November 2013
Hemel was in the news again recently, reprising a role with which it has become depressingly type-cast: Britain’s ugliest town. Yes, Crap Towns, that bible of all that’s pants in town planning, has been at it again. Hemel beat the likes of Luton and Hatfield in a poll of unidentified voters. But what’s this? A letter to The Times, no less, defending its
October 2013
Somewhere in Lithuania right now there is an old red lawnmower newly arrived all the way from Piccotts End! For nearly 20 years our Westwood ride-on had been keeping the grass down. We inherited it with the house when we moved here in 2003 and it proved to be a very reliable performer. However it finally gave up the ghost this month and
September 2013
Piccotts End’s medieval cottage, housing historic 15th century wall paintings, attracted dozens of visitors when they opened to the public for four days in September.
August 2013
It’s always fascinating to hear about the comings and goings of your home’s former owners. A chance meeting in a Devon car park has put us in touch with someone who lived in our house back in the1950s. In our case we were on the trail of the Mrs Inglis who lived at Marchmont Cottage between 1951 and 1973.
We wanted to know about the house’s early history, and about stories that it had a secret underground passage and a ghost! Hearing that she had moved to Branscombe in Devon,
February 2012
Very sad to learn of the death of PERA chairman Robin Corbett. As Lord Corbett of Castlevale and Hemel’s former MP he was one of politics’ most influential characters but to all of us in Piccotts End he was plain Robin, always friendly, helpful and concerned. When we first moved here nearly 10 years ago he was among the first to give us a warm