Hertfordshire Association for Local History
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HALH Symposium

Each year HALH organises a Symposium on Hertfordshire history, with a number of speakers, usually with a linking theme. The event normally takes place on the first or second Saturday in November. Local history societies from around the county have stalls where they sell their publications and display their latest research. The day is the highlight of the local history calendar in Hertfordshire, and is a great opportunity to hear local history experts, talk to fellow enthusiasts, and buy the latest publications. Coffee and tea are provided.

HALH Symposium 2022 Wining and Dining in Hertfordshire
The 43rd Symposium will take place on Saturday 19 November 2022 at the Katherine Warington School, Harpenden. This year our theme will be the social side of eating and drinking in Hertfordshire, and will range widely across the centuries – from, say, the feasting that punctuated the royal progresses and hunting parties as they passed through the county during the Middle Ages; the gargantuan dinners that so often accompanied the administration of justice and public affairs during the eighteenth century; or the ‘Annual Dinners’ held during the winter months by the numerous political, social and sporting clubs found throughout the county in Victorian times.

HALH ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM 2021 Hertfordshire’s Historic Waterways

The 2021 Symposium took place on Saturday 20 November at the Memorial Hall in Tewin, when looked at the rivers and waterways of the county – their natural history, the way they’ve influenced human settlement, and the role they’ve played in the development of industry and transport. 

The programme was as follows:

The New River: Neither New nor a River  Alan Thomson
SAHAAS book news, ‘Mistress of Gorhambury: Lady Anne Bacon, Tudor courtier and Scholar’ by Deborah Spring

Meadows, Water meadows and Watercress: using Hertfordshire’s Floodplains Tom Williamson  
HRS book news Ashwell Overseers' Accounts, 1676-1722, edited by David Short                                         
Rickmansworth History Society book news Pre-Reformation Wills from Rickmansworth Parish                        (1409-1539)  Heather Falvey​​
How Country Estates made use of Waterways Anne Rowe
Passing Through: The Grand Junction Canal in West Hertfordshire, 1791– 1841 Fabian Hiscock


Recent symposiums:

2015 Railways in Hertfordshire: their effect on the county
2016 Hertfordshire at War through the Centuries
​2017 Women of Hertfordshire
2018 From Roman City to New Towns
2019 
Landscape & Archaeology
2020 The Country House at War (online)


Click here for a list of our past symposiums

Below: HALH Symposium November 2019

                                                       
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