The new Co-op Funeral Parlour in Hemel Hempstead

Glass Hurst. Co-op funeral Services Hemel Hempstead. Phote: Roz Rossetti

Photo by Roz Rossetti

Photo by: Roz Rossetti

After leaving Dacorum College I crossed the road and saw a large gathering of people outside the Co-op Funeral Directors new premises near Hemel Hempstead s Old Town. A large crowd had gathered and to my utter delight there were two of the most amazing black horses with huge black plumbes of feather attached to the top of their bridles and they were standing majestically in front of the building with a glass Hurst attached to their harnesses.  My curiosity got the better of me so I wandered over and it was very clear to me that the Funeral director was opening a new shop.  There was a motorbike which has a side car and the side car

The new Co-op Funeral Director in Hemel Hempstead

was adapted to carry a coffin. Also there was a push bike that had a similar attachment.  Much merriment was going on and I was asked if I would like my photo taken sitting on the motor bike!  This I did.  Everyone was very friendly and welcoming....it was a wonderful warm Grand National morning.

Dacorum College

So,  I wondered up through the town and into its water gardens and there, just by Bank Court and in the middle of the pond that is fed by the River Gade, it the statue still with water cascading around that had been there when I was a teenager way back in the '60s.  The ducks and swans were still around - not the same ones!! - I came back across the road and through Bank Court and back into the Marlowes.  The old Wimpy Bar that I and my friends used to go has now gone and been replaced by a small shopping arcade.  What I was beginning to notice was that after you leave the obvious regenerated part of the town down by the Kodak building and the Pizza Express once you got past the new arcade that the shops began to get  mediocre and cheap looking with the usual suspects in evidence.  And Betting shops....there seemed to be a lot of betting shops....is this the regeneration that the town planners want.  Hemel Hempstead needs more decent shops.  What's the thing?  Is it that the Business rates are too high? Anyhow, as I approached the Town Hall I began to fill up with emotion - silly me - I had gone to Dacorum college from '66 - '67 and had loved it. I see its not called Dacorum now.  I walked across the forefront of the Town Hall and approached the College and towards the main entrance and remembered all those years ago how I had walked this route for the very first time after leaving the clutches of a Convent - St. Francis de Sales, in Tring - the first person I encountered was an amazing looking boy how was really friendly and told me his name was Steve and he was from Watford (I think!)  he stood out from the other boys because he wore a suit, it was green, a really pleasant shade of green and it suited him.  He was very chatty.  Anyway.. at the main entrance I walked towards the block that I was doing my shorthand/typing course in....past the library on the right - if it is still a library and past the beautiful weeping willow tree.
I looked up to the top floor and to the far left and there it was....my room.

View down the Marlowes. 

Hemel Hempstead Water Gardens ! Photo by Roz rossetti

Dacorum entrance to my block

My classroom '66 - '67 photo Roz Rossetti

I had fallen in love from that room way way back in '66.  That wonderful intoxication of young love -quite unrequited - but still the feeling remains with me today he was totally amazing looking with pale skin and dark curly hair with fantastic bone structure that just set he apart for anyone else I had seen.  He was on day release from an Engineering Company and I had looked out of the window that day and saw him for the first time and yes.....it was love at first sight.  His name was Gerald Daly.  And now some 35 years later on I was standing beneath the window  where I first saw him.  Yes.....I cried, I had tears rolling down my cheeks,  remembering that it was was just a few years later we had a chance meeting  and we ended up madly in love and me living with him with my daughter Tanya and his daughter Mikaila Daly  but I was  silly stupid and married to someone else and foolishly left him to sort out the mess of my marriage (which ended a year later in divorce).  I have never ever found love like that since. He was truly the love of my life. So yes, my tears of sorrow and regret  rolled warmly down my cheeks dripping down onto my dress.  I do so hope he is happy. Anyway, I gazed into the ground floor room that he used to get his lectures in once a  week and saw a hazy reflection and fleeting glimpse of his face now lost in the mists of time realising that there is no place on earth as far away as yesterday and yes.......more tears flowed. Funny how life is.

class room of Gerald Daly '66 - '67 Photo Roz Rossetti

weeping willow tree in college grounds. photo: Roz Rossetti

My trip to Hemel Hempstead continue.....

View across to the new flats that replace the old Kodak Building. Phote: Roz Rossetti.

So, after exploring Apsley I am now drawn up towards Hemel town centre.  Once again, massive changes have taken place. The Kodak building had gone and alone with it that hideous statue by Rodan (I think) the Kodak building has been replaced by what I think are flats.  They look amazing and I would so love the top one on the sunny side.  The site stands on the Magic Roundabout that had not changed at all although I thought it looked really tired and in need of a face lift, it a shame because it is a famous roundabout and it deserves to look funky now particularly since Hemels facelift is centred at the entrance to the town.  The underpasses  are only accessible in a rubber dingy!  What is that about...it took me ages to get across the road it was busy even on an early Saturday morning.  The old Shell Mex (House) building had gone too..... swallowed up into a Debanhams.  I was pleased to see that the new buildings were built on a curve mimicking the River Gade that ambles through Hemel Hempsteads water gardens.

Cafe I had mugs of tea in.  Lovely ladies, really friendly. Photo: Roz Rossetti

Turning into the Marlowes I was first struck by the lack of cars....yes...its been pedestrianised.  How wonderful is that.....now wandering through the Marlowes was a great experience with el fresco cafes and stalls.  I found a really lovely cafe in the middle of what would have been the road, it was run by two ladies and served the usual teas and coffees and jacket potatoes as well.  The lovely thing was that they served the tea in proper chine colourful mugs and not some cardboard throwaway version.  They came to remember me by the end of the day because I kept going back for tea.  One lady called me Kate Bush !!

The continuing story of my weekend away .

Apsley Lock April 2011

Having now got to the Holiday Inn Apsley I booked in, parked up and although I could not access my room yet, I got the dogs and started to walk around Apsley trying to figure it all out.  Certainly it had changed and seemed much bigger that I had remembered with a lot of building work going on, not sure what was being built, was it going to be flats or offices.  The regeneration of the paper mill and that fantastic marina with its narrowboats glistening in the Saturday morning sunshine was my next place I visited.

Not so hot

I have just walked along beside the coast for a couple of hours......would like it to have been warmer.

A weekend in Apsley, Hemel Hempstead.

It was my birthday last weekend I wanted to make it something special.  Previous birthdays had been somewhat lacking.  That is to say that last year - 2010 was my 60th birthday and I wanted to mark the occasion by doing someone more than just going to the pub with friends so I organised to meet up in Brighton with my god daughter who lives in Brighton and some friends who were up for a trip away. I was due to stay the the Brighton Hilton and had pre paid to get a great deal.  Anyway, all the arrangements were made and finally the weekend approached with much excitement - well....its not everyday that you are 60 !!  
Well the night before I was due to drive up my mother took a fall and was taken to hospital up in Kings Lynn where she live.  So, I had to cancel my weekend and instead of 48 hours of madness in Brighton I drove to Kings Lynn and sat quietly by my mothers bed side.  Thankfully for her she recovered.
So, you see I wanted to do something this year to make of for it.  
I grew up in Berkhamstead and later in the '70's I went to live in Hemel Hempstead - Warners End - with my then husband - a man who altered the way my life was to go significantly enough that today I am still haunted by it.
I decided to revisit my youth and my early 20's so I booked a weekend away in The Holiday Inn Express in Apsley...they are a dog friendly hotel.
Off I went.
Oh......OMG what a huge supprise I had and how glad I was that I have a sat/nav.  I did not recognise the approach to Apsley there was a massive junction where there was once a winding road.  As I appoached the junction the traffic lights changed and I sat there completely gob smacked. As I looked around I was aware that the man in the car next to mine - a very smart looking vehicle that probably cost more than my small flat back home - was staring at me and what a sight I must have looked with two largish dogs, one of whom was lying on the back ledge and the other looking out of the window of my 22 year old Mazda MX5 and me with my mouth open staring around like I had just been dropping from outspace.  I may well have been......what a change.......I racked my brains to remember what it all looked like....what had happened.......well, yes...life had happened and years and years had passed by - 33 years to be exact.  The lights changed and my sat/nav told me to turn right.  I turned right and then when though was I remembered as a small village really.....no no not now.  As I went on through Apsley I realised I simply did not recognise it.  Silly me what on earth was I expecting.  I saw the Holiday in on the left hand side but kept on driving much to the protestations of my sat/nav.  I went on for a minute or two the a roundabout that if you turned left took to you a kind of Business Park or if you went straight on would take you on to Kings Langley.  I went back around the roundabout and headed back into Apsley again for a second look and took off up to the left at the junction and back the way I came.  Stopping to turn around to go back down to the traffic lights and turn right again and off to my hotel and hone for  the next 48 hours.
The journey continue......