Hertford Civic Society started in 1969. It began as an act of community resistance, in response to official threats to bulldoze much of the venerable core of the town to build a ‘space age’ shopping centre.
The same spirit of community resistance was still flourishing 50 years later when, in 2019, Hertford Civic Society hosted a public meeting of over 200 people, to review the County Council’s plans for a Hertford bypass for the A414.
The opposition was vocal and articulate enough to begin to persuade the County Council to re-think its initial assumptions. We have been encouraging the County Council to build an East-West tramway instead.
The main activity of Hertford Civic Society is to scrutinise the more high-profile planning proposals confronting the town. When necessary, we fight hard against damaging propositions, on the basis of our independent expertise.
We don’t just operate on a critical basis. Every few years, we also organise an awards process to identify and celebrate the best new buildings, or major architectural redevelopments, within the town. Certificates and plaques go to the winners; the plaques can be seen dotted around the town, some dating back several decades.
Hertford has a long history, and we have also collaborated with the Town Council to identify key historic buildings, to create a heritage trail, identified by blue plaques.
Finally, we own and are responsible for maintaining Confluence, the fountain in Salisbury Square, right in the middle of Hertford.
We are an organisation that welcomes new members. Please join us.
We offer our members talks on a wide range of local topics. We like to hold occasional parties, sometimes in venues normally off-limits. For instance, in 2019, we celebrated our 50 th anniversary with a party in a lovely private garden in
Bengeo. And we recently hosted a gin-tasting in a private sculpture garden.
We are active on Twitter, and this is our website, so it’s easy to learn more about us.
