The fifty years from the last decade of the eighteenth century saw great
changes in Britain. Significant technological and economic change, not
to mention wars, affected great swathes of the population and profoundly
changed many aspects of life. In this book Fabian Hiscock considers this
dramatic upheaval as it played out in western Hertfordshire, focusing in
particular on just one of the many innovations of the time: the Grand
Junction Canal, created to connect the Midlands with London. Having
described the complex process of creating the Canal itself, the author
turns to how western Hertfordshire experienced, and responded to, the
new trade route that now traversed its fields and settlements. In the
area's towns and villages - particularly Rickmansworth, Watford, Hemel
Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring - the Canal made an impact, but to what
extent did it live up to the promises made by its promoters? And what
were the impacts on trade and transport, on work and home life? Did it
create jobs and wealth for local people? Or did it simply pass through,
leaving those living on either side relatively unaffected? Whether and
in what way western Hertfordshire changed as a result of the Grand
Junction Canal is the focus of this work. 1841 is the chosen end date
for the study period because of the coincidence of the Census undertaken
that year, which sheds some light on the industrial make-up of the area,
the tithe awards made between 1838 and 1844, allowing study of the
Canal's effect on land ownership and usage across the area, and the
start of the London and Birmingham Railway's real economic effect. In
combining canal history with a detailed social and economic study of a
part of the county that is not much written about, Fabian Hiscock has
written a superbly researched and wide-reaching book that will be of
interest to a broad range of readers.
