About
Dacorum Heritage is an independent charitable trust dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting the local history of the Dacorum borough — the area covering Hemel Hempstead and the surrounding Hertfordshire towns and villages including Berkhamsted, Tring and the Chilterns fringe. Rather than presenting its collection through a single, large, conventional museum building open every day, Dacorum Heritage operates primarily as a heritage resource and study centre, holding a substantial archive of photographs, oral histories, objects, documents and ephemera relating to the area's social, industrial and agricultural past, and making this material accessible to researchers, family historians, schools and community groups through a combination of study sessions, changing small-scale displays and outreach events across the borough.
This model reflects the practical realities faced by many independent local history trusts of its kind: rather than the overhead of maintaining a large standalone visitor attraction, Dacorum Heritage concentrates its resources on active collecting, careful conservation and genuine public access to its archive, while still offering visitors and researchers the chance to see selected highlights of the collection in person by appointment or during scheduled open sessions.
The trust's holdings reflect Dacorum's distinctive local story: Hemel Hempstead's transformation from a small market town into one of Britain's first post-war New Towns, its longer agricultural and coaching-route history along the old Sparrows Herne turnpike, the paper-making and other light industries that shaped the area's economy, and the social history of the many villages absorbed into or bordering the modern borough as it expanded through the twentieth century.
Volunteers play a significant role in Dacorum Heritage's work, from cataloguing and digitising archive material to running community history projects, oral history recording and educational outreach in local schools, and the trust actively welcomes contributions of photographs, documents and memories from residents with connections to the area.
For visitors specifically interested in the history of Hemel Hempstead and the wider Dacorum area — whether researching family history, a specific building or street, or simply curious about how this part of Hertfordshire developed from rural market town to New Town — Dacorum Heritage represents the single most comprehensive point of access to that story, even though the visiting experience differs from a conventional walk-in local museum and benefits from checking current access arrangements and any scheduled open days before making a special trip.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Contact Dacorum Heritage or check their website in advance to confirm current access arrangements — this is a study centre and archive rather than a daily-opening museum, and opening sessions can vary.
- If you are researching family history or a specific Dacorum building or street, email ahead with your query so volunteers can identify relevant material before your visit.
- Keep an eye out for scheduled community open days and small changing displays, which offer the most accessible way to see collection highlights without a specific research purpose.
- The trust particularly welcomes contributions of old photographs, documents and memories from residents with connections to Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted or Tring.
- Volunteers running study sessions are typically knowledgeable and happy to talk through the collection's New Town and older market-town material.
- Combine a visit with a walk around Hemel Hempstead's Old Town and the Marlowes water gardens to see some of the New Town planning discussed in the archive.
- School and community groups researching local history projects should get in touch well in advance to arrange tailored access to relevant material.
- Because this is a volunteer-supported charity, opening times can be more limited than a council-run museum — patience and advance planning are worthwhile.
Highlights
Hemel Hempstead New Town Archive
One of the trust's most distinctive holdings documents Hemel Hempstead's transformation into one of Britain's first post-war New Towns, designated under the New Towns Act 1946 and subsequently developed with ambitious modernist planning including the well-known Marlowes water gardens. Photographs, planning documents, oral histories and objects trace this rapid mid-twentieth-century transformation from a modest Hertfordshire market town into a planned new community, offering researchers and residents alike a uniquely detailed record of how New Town planning reshaped the daily lives, housing and identity of thousands of families relocated to Hemel Hempstead from London and elsewhere.
Market Town and Coaching Heritage
Material relating to Hemel Hempstead's much older history as a market town on the historic Sparrows Herne turnpike coaching route documents the area's agricultural trade, inns and coaching traffic before the New Town era transformed the town's character. Old maps, trade directories and photographs of the pre-war High Street and market place give visitors and researchers a strong sense of the town's longer historical arc, providing essential context for understanding just how dramatic the mid-twentieth-century New Town transformation actually was.
Oral History Collection
Dacorum Heritage has built a substantial oral history archive recording the first-hand memories of long-standing residents across the borough, capturing recollections of wartime life, New Town relocation, industrial employment and everyday social change across the twentieth century. This oral testimony adds an irreplaceable human dimension to the trust's documentary and photographic holdings, and the ongoing recording of new interviews means the collection continues to grow as a living record of the area's recent past.
Photographic Collection
An extensive photographic archive spans well over a century of images of Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring and surrounding Dacorum villages, documenting streetscapes, buildings, industries and community events many of which have since been substantially altered or demolished. This visual record is heavily used by local historians, family historians and planning researchers seeking to understand how specific streets, buildings and communities have changed over time.
Collections
Dacorum Heritage's collections document the social, industrial and agricultural history of the Dacorum borough in Hertfordshire, centred on Hemel Hempstead's transformation from historic market town to post-war New Town, alongside the local history of Berkhamsted, Tring and surrounding villages. The trust holds extensive photographic archives, oral history recordings, documents, maps and objects, built up through decades of community collecting, donation and active oral history recording.
Rather than displaying this material in a single large standalone museum building, Dacorum Heritage makes its collection accessible primarily through its study centre, scheduled open days, community projects and outreach, reflecting a resource-centre model common among independent local history trusts of its scale.
The trust's volunteers continue to expand and digitise the collection, ensuring it remains a living, growing resource rather than a static archive.
Dacorum: From Market Town to New Town
The trust's core interpretive theme, tracing Hemel Hempstead and the wider Dacorum borough's development from agricultural market town through to twentieth-century New Town planning.
Voices of Dacorum
A rotating selection of oral history recordings and personal testimony from long-standing residents, capturing first-hand memories of the borough's twentieth-century transformation.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.