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…
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.
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. With pulled pork rolls provided by PERA secretary Michael Nidd, soup by Jayne Alger…
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…
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…
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…
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. The owners, Karen Murphy and Alison Wright, said they were delighted with the level of interest in the murals which were painted by pilgrims on their way to an Ashridge monastery in the…
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…