Lemsford and the Great North Road exhibition
Our exhibition on ‘Lemsford and the Great North Road’ aroused such interest at the 2006 Lemsford Fête that we decided to remount it, plus some extra information and photographs, for this years Fête. There were four main sections.
The various routes that the road had taken since Roman Times and the comments, generally unfavourable as to its state, of the people who had used them.
1600s to 1833 when the road went through Lemsford and how Lemsford would have looked in the 18th Century. We are most grateful for permission to show reproductions of three views of Lemsford painted in 1790. We also showed some early 19th Century photographs of Lemsford.
1833 The ‘New “Cut from Stanborough to Ayot Green which bypassed Lemsford and the changes to the road and the area since.
We were most fortunate in being given an album of photographs taken in 1925 showing views along the old Great North Road between Stanborough and Digswell Hill together with photographs showing the same view in 1927 after a major upgrade to the road. We added photographs of, as near as the changes made by the A1(M) would allow, the same view in 2006. The photographs of the Stanborough crossroads are part of this series.
The History of Bury Cottages and the people who have lived in them. These were built in 1921 at Stanborough on the then Great North Road for ex-service men. They appear in the background of the Stanborough crossroads photographs.
Published: 07 May 07
Author: Lemsford History Group
