Launch of Harpenden Local History Society Website

Harpenden Town Mayor, Cllr Michael Weaver, Ron Staines (former Chairman of Harpenden Local History Society) and District and County Cllr, Teresa Heritage

Local History Society members were delighted to welcome Harpenden Town Mayor, Michael Weaver, District & County Councillor Teresa Heritage, Sue Flood, Hertfordshire County Archivist, Kate Warren, St Albans Museum Services and other local dignitaries to the formal launch event for the website on Saturday, 24 September, at Park Hall, Harpenden.

Harpenden Town Mayor, Cllr Michael Weaver

Michael Weaver expressed his support for the Society’s activities in general and for the website development project in particular.  Representatives from a range of local societies, members of Society and visitors then watched a presentation of the website by Peter Boden and Rosemary Ross, showing how easily the many and varied pages can be accessed and explored.

Peter Boden and Rosemary Ross, making the presentation of the website

There were opportunities for those present to try out adding pages to the website on laptops provided by the Society and to share ideas for future contributions to the site.  Around the walls of the hall, Les Casey, the Society’s curator, mounted a selection from the many photos collected by the late Eric Brandreth.

Hands-on experience

The Society is grateful for all those whose hard work made the day a great success with over 100 people visiting and enjoying the exhibits and demonstrations.  Especial thanks are due to the Town Council who kindly allowed the Society to hire the venue at no cost.

We have reproduced the leaflet that we published to support the website development and this is shown below as it illustrates what the Society’s intentions are in developing the Community Archive.

In due course we hope to keep site visitors abreast of future developments.  We are always seeking to encourage greater participation from members and the public alike.

Below is a short video made by Harpendia.com at the launch.  To start the video click on the arrow in the centre.