North Mymms News: March 2018

More WWII tank traps unearthed in Brookmans Park

Some of the tank traps on the north side of Bradmore Lane
Photograph by Peter Miller

It was thought that there were half a dozen WWII tank traps buried in the hedgerow along Brookmans Park's Bradmore Lane, now more have been uncovered.

Photograph of what's thought to be a wartime defence emplacement near Brookmans Park Station. Image by Peter Miller

The remains of what's thought to be a wartime defence emplacement near Brookmans Park Station
Image taken by Peter Miller

What’s thought to be a strategic wartime defence position from WWII has been discovered close to Brookmans Park station.

Photograph of North Mymms Memorial Hall. Image by Mike Allen

North Mymms Memorial Hall, Station Road, Welham Green

The chair of the North Mymms Memorial Hall, Mike Allen, has written to this site asking for help in recruiting a new secretary and active committee members to help run the place.

The Swan, Bell Bar, in the 1900s
Image from the NMLHS, part of the Images of North Mymms collection

260 years ago, residents of Bell Bar had the choice of four pubs, all within a five minutes walk of each other, and all serving home-brewed real ale. All four inns or alehouses, The White Hart, The Swan, The Bell, and The Bull, had accommodation and stables too, because Bell Bar was a major staging post between London and the north.

Painting of Little Miss Muffet
From the former North Mymms Local History Society archive

There is a lovely feature on our new history site, The North Mymms History Project, about Little Miss Muffet. It explores whether she was a local girl living at Moffats Farm on Moffats Lane, Brookmans Park, and whether the nursery rhyme was written by her father.

Photograph of the gate close to site BrP4 west of Brookmans Park and south of Bradmore Lane, one of the site's being considered for housing Image by David Brewer released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

A gate and footpath close to site BrP4 west of Brookmans Park and south of Bradmore Lane
BrP4 is an allocated site in the Local Plan for 250 new homes
Image by David Brewer released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

Developers have been accused of "pushing to increase house building in North Mymms" and "add 899 new houses to the 609 already in the Draft Plan" for the parish.

Photograph of the headless children brass etching on the wall of St Mary's, North Mymms Image by David Brewer released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

The headless children brass on the wall of St Mary's, North Mymms
Image by David Brewer released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0

From our local history site, The North Mymms History Project, the story behind the brass image on the wall of St Mary's Church showing a woman with two headless children.

Photograph of North Mymms House from the Peter Miller Collection

One of our other sites, The North Mymms History Project, has a short feature showcasing a video of a virtual tour of North Mymms Park. The video was put together by the auctioneers Sworders to promote an auction in April 2018.