A community project about the history & development of the town run by the Welwyn Garden Heritage Trust
There are three elements to the project:
House Detectives - encouraging residents to investigate the history of their homes using archive material from HALS, WGC Library local studies and Mill Green Museum.
Memories - early residents are contributing their recollections of the town which are digitally recorded as oral histories. Priority is given to capturing those whose memories date back furthest but all are welcome to participate.
Photography - we are building an archive of material on Welwyn Garden City from photographs that are loaned for scanning or donated outright to the Trust.
Material generated by the project was exhibited at Oaklands College in July 2011. Mill Green Museum will show some of the material in its gallery in January 2012. Read more about the project at http://welwyngarden-heritage.org/
A 1940's Eastside Memory
Playing in the Back Field
A difficult journey to WGC in 1939
From Leipzig with help from WGC Quakers
A family arrives in 1924
An early encounter with a car in Valley Road
A house on Parkway
My brother said "You know Dad there's a lovely lot of new houses being built in Welwyn Garden City. Why don't we go and have a look at them?"
A move from Sunderland
Relocation paid for by labour exchange
A Nursery Nurse in WGC
I trained at Ludwick Nursery School
An East side home
"it was terribly cold and very wet and there was clay all round the house, nothing else at all"
An operation at the Cottage Hospital
A bit of a dust up with a Handside pupil and the Cherry Tree Restaurant from a child's perspective
Brick Mosaics
A curious feature of early WGC
Childhood memories of the 1930's
Go-karting and a film set in Sherrards Park Woods
Early years in The Quadrangle
I don't ever remember being bored
East-side and West-side
Everybody was very friendly
First impressions of the town in 1931
My first impression was how small everything was
From Canada to WGC
Memories of the first Welwyn Stores
From South Shields to WGC
Guarding Digswell viaduct
Handside Memories
Pre-Campus West Entertainment!
Hatfield Hyde and Woodhall
Dad went to the pump to fetch our water for the day
Knella Road Memories
"It was all open fields."
Life in Ethelred Close
Waiting for Dad to come home from work
Life in Lanefield Walk
"I am really Welwyn Garden City born and bred"
Living in Elmwood
Elmwood neighbours
Living in Guessens Court
A minister for Christchurch
Living in Longcroft Lane
Pram wheels half way up in mud
Ludwick Way
"We spent most of our lives there."
Memories of Handside Lane
We were right on the edge of the town
Moving to WGC and an early commute
My first visit was as a bridesmaid
Pioneering Parents
Moving to WGC in 1922
Playing Outdoors
The sandwasher and the River Lea
School days
First memory of school and the new grammar school during the war years
Some Characters From The Early Days
The Sargeant Commissionaire and Mr G
Valley Road
"father was appointed the chief air-raid warden for WGC"
Woodhall Athletic Football Team
"We started with just one football, borrowed kit..."
Work and play
Shorthand typing at Roche and dances at The Cherry Tree
Working for Louis De Soissons
"my first real experience of work"
House Detectives
The history of some WGC homes gathered by residents using local archives