New Town from Old

Produced by the Hemel Hempstead Development Corporation in the early 60s, this is an update on how Hemel Hempstead has grown as "one of the 8 new towns around London."

Starting with shots of the old town and it's heritage, the film then focuses on the development, started in 1950, of a number of new neighbourhoods built around the town each with their own shops, new churches, community centres and pubs to house the thousands of people who had moved from London. We're taken on a tour of the first new town neighbourhood, Adeyfield and the Queen's Square and on to Bennetts End, Chaulden, Warner's End and Gadebridge.

The focus is on the facilities, lanscaping and choice of accommodation from bedsits to townhouses and the wide variety of architectural design. The commentary explains "a terrace, ending in a group of corner flats, an example of the ingenuity with which architects have designed buildings to turn corners"........