Lemsford 'bikers cafe' Hatfield

[65447]

*Now, The Great North Road which headed North out of Hatfield passing Stanborough just West of where the Bull pub once stood: which Pub was on the 'new alignment' (now B197) which bypassed Lemsford and lies just West of the A1(M). The earliest route still visible (B653)went to Brocket Corner where it turned East into the Lea Valley for the little village of Lemsford. Here there was a 'mill by the stream' where lived 'Nellie Dean' the famously beauteous miller's daughter of legend commemorated in popular song. The mill building is still there, just over the road from The Sun pub. Don't drive above 15mph, the sleeping policemen are something fierce.

This old mill, with a very young 65447 with his Mum, on a Sunday outing near to his birthplace, Brocket Hall?

[Hatfield Shed]

That records the past state of the Lea's pollution rather nicely, which prevailed until about 1970.

The clean up to return the Lea to creditable chalk stream condition has been very successful. (We have recently been served notice locally that water supply will be augmented by supply drawn from Grafham water, to reduce abstraction from the chalk aquifers of Hertfordshire, to avoid past incidences of dry river beds. (Read 'creek' for river if the other side of the Pond, the surface water is minimal, the chalk hides it all away underground. As boys in short trousers, removal of footwear was all that was required to wade the Lea, Mimram, Beane, etc..

[Mickey]

That records the past state of the Lea's pollution rather nicely, which prevailed until about 1970.

The clean up to return the Lea to creditable chalk stream condition has been very successful. (We have recently been served notice locally that water supply will be augmented by supply drawn from Grafham water, to reduce abstraction from the chalk aquifers of Hertfordshire, to avoid past incidences of dry river beds. (Read 'creek' for river if the other side of the Pond, the surface water is minimal, the chalk hides it all away underground. As boys in short trousers, removal of footwear was all that was required to wade the Lea, Mimram, Beane, etc..

With regards to the river Lea I recall my late half-brother use to live in Ware and also work nearly beside the river Lea at Ware in a sawmill during the later 1960s and through into the 1970s and I recall on several occasions when visiting him seeing a Thames 'motorised' lighter (barge) tied up at a wharf nearby to where he worked and this was around 1969/70. Also further along the river Lea heading towards Hertford is a no.2 Ware lock.

With regards to the river 'Mimram' I recall back in 1967 near to where the Mimram flows under or near the Welwyn viaduct of myself standing beside the flowing waters of the river although from memory it was very 'shallow' along that stretch of the river and from memory maybe only about a foot or slightly more than a foot deep. Apparently 'watercress' was also grown in that area.

[giner]

I think you might be right about the watercress being grown there, Mickey. There definitely was a farm a few miles upstream at Whitwell.

Oh, while I’m here, back on the subject of transport cafes:
An old man was eating in a transport cafe when three Hell's Angels' bikers walked in.
The first walked up to the old man, pushed his cigarette into the old man's pie and then took a seat at the counter.
The second walked up to the old man, spat into the old man's tea and then he too took a seat at the counter.
The third walked up to the old man, turned over the old man's plate, and then he took a seat at the counter.
Without a word of protest, the old man quietly left the cafe.
Shortly thereafter, one of the bikers said to the waitress, "Not much of a man, was he?"
The waitress replied,
"Apparently not much of a lorry driver either, he just backed his artic over three motorcycles."

[Mickey]

A similar thing happens and appears in the 1977 American film Smokey And The Bandit when an American truck driver pulls into a road side truck stop and walks into the truck stop where 7 or 8 'bikers' are playing pool and before long a fight ensues and the trucker gets a good beating by several of the bikers and then is kicked out the truck stop anyway he picks himself up off the ground and gets back into his truck and then proceeds to 'drive over' 7 or 8 parked up Harley Davidson motorbikes and flattens them all!!.

[Hatfield Shed]

With regards to the river 'Mimram' I recall back in 1967 near to where the Mimram flows under or near the Welwyn viaduct of myself standing beside the flowing waters of the river although from memory it was very 'shallow' along that stretch of the river and from memory maybe only about a foot or slightly more than a foot deep. Apparently 'watercress' was also grown in that area.

Watercress was widely grown in Hertfordshire's chalk streams up to C19th, for the London market. Killed off by the water abstraction and pollution as the population and industrial development expanded in what had been very rural Hertfordshire before the railway arrived, which was of course the GNR and subsequently LNER in this area. A couple of miles South, the loco shed at Hatfield was soon in trouble for water and deeper wells were required.

Still to be seen in Lemsford, the channeling of the Lea to create watercress beds, some of them now in private gardens skillfully arranged to make the best of the natural water feature. On the Mimram East of the viaduct toward Tewinbury there was an extensive run of beds, now all overgrown.

[Mickey]

With regards to the river 'Mimram' I recall back in 1967 near to where the Mimram flows under or near the Welwyn viaduct of myself standing beside the flowing waters of the river although from memory it was very 'shallow' along that stretch of the river and from memory maybe only about a foot or slightly more than a foot deep. Apparently 'watercress' was also grown in that area.

Watercress was widely grown in Hertfordshire's chalk streams up to C19th, for the London market. Killed off by the water abstraction and pollution as the population and industrial development expanded in what had been very rural Hertfordshire before the railway arrived, which was of course the GNR and subsequently LNER in this area. A couple of miles South, the loco shed at Hatfield was soon in trouble for water and deeper wells were required.

Still to be seen in Lemsford, the channeling of the Lea to create watercress beds, some of them now in private gardens skillfully arranged to make the best of the natural water feature. On the Mimram East of the viaduct toward Tewinbury there was an extensive run of beds, now all overgrown.

About four or five years ago I believe I read on the internet that the river Mimram had dried up in parts several summers previously although I assume it is still flowing again nowadays in 2024 also I believe I read in the same piece that the river Mimram 'rises' somewhere near Luton and the Chiltern hills and then flows in a south easterly direction thereafter through Hertfordshire and on into Essex?.

[giner]

I just took a look on Google Maps streetview at the watercress farm In Whitwell that I mentioned earlier. I see it’s still there and the Mimram looks as wet as ever. Must be over 60 years I used to bike over there from Stevenage.

[Hatfield Shed]

About four or five years ago I believe I read on the internet that the river Mimram had dried up in parts several summers previously although I assume it is still flowing again nowadays in 2024 also I believe I read in the same piece that the river Mimram 'rises' somewhere near Luton and the Chiltern hills and then flows in a south easterly direction thereafter through Hertfordshire and on into Essex?.

The depletion of the chalk aquifer under Hertfordshire by abstarction has been most notorious for causing the Ver in St Albans to regularly go dry in summer; to the best of my knowledge neither the Lea (which donates its name as a component in both Luton and Leyton on its course) or the Mimram have ever gone completely dry recently, the latter sometimes a much reduced width you can jump across. This is the reason for augmenting Hertfordshire's water supply by drawing on Grafham Water.