Hatfield Town Centre has reopened four weeks after lockdown. Picture: Charlotte McLaughlin
- Credit: Archant
When considering the original post-war redevelopment plan, the MP for Hitchin declared that Hatfield was one of those half-baked places that grew up without any centre or any plan at all .
Philip Asterley Jones was contrasting the development of the town to the Garden Cities of Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City while the New Towns Act of 1946 was being read.
He was not alone in this sentiment, with Scottish MP Gilbert McAllister calling it a shocking development at Hatfield .
Hatfield subsequently became the ninth New Town, although it was not actually designated until May 1948, and in the 1960s the Commission for New Towns finally set about making areas of England a pleasant land .
Lump of Coal, Tredegar The largest in the world, this legendary lump of coal was mined by expert collier, John ‘Collier Mawr’ Jones, to be shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Crystal Palace. During transportation, a 5.08-tonne piece broke away from the initial 20.32-tonne block, and was subsequently returned to the grounds of Bedwellty House home of the Homfray family. A century later, a 2.03-tonne block was cut from the same seam of coal for the Festival of Britain, with both blocks listed as a unique tribute to the coal industry in South Wales and to the skill of the region’s miners.