Exhibitions and conferences

The group of volunteers who have been researching the community of Smallford and the history of the branch railway between Hatfield and St Albans, celebrated a significant milestone last Wednesday.  At the University, where many meetings and workshops have been held during the past two years, we all gathered for the 'big reveal': the exhibition called Bringing The History of Smallford Station to Life.

It was appropriate that the celebratory evening was held at the University, the home of the Heritage Hub, which has provided so much support to the project.

This was the first occasion on which members of the project team were able to see the compete range of the research to which they had contributed, and the first occasion for their guests as well.

Although there is no immediate prospect of the exhibition being available for a season, there will be 'pop-up' opportunities at other events during the coming year.  We will publicise these pop-ups on the SAOEE website.





Yesterday, another significant event took place at Verulamium Museum: the fourth in the series of Autumn Conferences arranged by the St Albans & District Local History Network.  Over fifty representatives of local history organisations and groups came together to hear presentations by specialists in their field, on a coin find in London Colney, St Albans boundary extensions, the University's Heritage Hub, the role of Scouts during WW1, activity in the city during the 18th century, a report on the Museums' collections, a biography of John Griffith, and the history of Rothamsted Manor.

The Network is a loose amalgam of those people who have an enthusiasm for their local history and environment, whether they are part of a group or organisation, or whether they are keenly interested on a particular project, working on their own.  We do not 'belong' to the Network, but by contacting the organising committee on sanetwork@me.com you can add your contact details to the database, which is used to communicate details of events, queries about aspects of research, and of course details of the Autumn Conference each October.