42 Sustainability and heritage
comes to life
Hatfield heritage
Social historians always emphasise the importance and value of connecting communities with their past. The de Havilland Aerodrome Community Heritage Project, celebrating Hatfield’s place in aviation history, shows how true this is.
As the birthplace of legendary aircraft like the Hornet Moth, Comet and Trident, Hatfield has a heritage to be incredibly proud of. From the 1930s to the 1990s the town was one of the most important sites in Britain’s aerospace industry. At its height, the de Havilland Aviation Company, which operated out of Hatfield’s aerodrome, employed around ten thousand people at its factory.
Today, the former airfield site is home to the residents of Salisbury Village, the University’s de Havilland campus and the Hatfield Business Park. Only a few traces of the town’s glorious aviation past remain – in the names of streets and pubs, for example.
Through a series of community events and activities over an eighteen-month period the de Havilland Aerodrome Community Heritage Project brought Hatfield’s cultural, social and economic history back to life. Many positive things came out of this venture, which
was supported by local businesses, societies and individuals, and was partly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
‘Connecting the local community with its roots in this particular way really strengthened people’s sense of identity and history. But much more than this, it reunited old work colleagues and acquaintances, created many new friendships and working relationships, and left a lasting legacy for everyone to enjoy and learn from.
‘The venture brought together people from many different backgrounds, both from our local community and across our University. Their shared interest and genuine enthusiasm in working together as a team were the real driving forces behind its success,’ explains Owen Davies, Professor of Social History and the project’s director.
Lasting legacies include a four kilometre heritage walk, featuring ten permanent trail boards illustrating different aspects of the aerodrome’s history. The memories and experiences of former de Havilland employees – pilots, engineers, office staff and others – are now captured in oral history recordings. Extracts are published in a commemorative booklet The de Havilland Legacy: Hatfield Aerodrome Remembered, which has been distributed to local residents, schools, colleges, libraries and museums around Hertfordshire. The iconic Hatfield Beacon, believed to be the last surviving pre-World War Two beacon, has also been restored and sited on the University’s campus.
The project’s success also inspired the creation of the University’s new Heritage Hub. The Hub connects experts from a whole range of disciplines, with the aim of shaping other heritage initiatives and promoting greater historical awareness in local communities,
as well as in public policy and commercial settings. The knowledge and experiences gained, and the new associations formed, during the de Havilland project are being put to good use in the planning of two future commemorative events – one in 2012 to celebrate the University’s sixtieth anniversary, and one in 2014 to mark the centenary of the First World War.
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