A series of four talks for HGT members and their guests, to be held on Monday afternoons at 2.30pm. At The Village Hall, Hall Lane, Woolmer Green, SG3 6XA (Near Knebworth)

Tea and coffee will be served from 2.15pm and each talk will cost £5 per person.

Reservation and payment for places on the four talks should be made to Mrs Liz Carlin, 27 Highoaks Road, Welwyn Garden City, AL8 7BJ (Tel: 01707 321210)

Welwyn Garden City is a fusion of Unwin’s Arts and Crafts ‘healthy living’ town planning and de Soissons’ ‘City Beautiful’ centre with its processional way, influenced by cities in the United States, laid out by planners trained in the Paris Ecole de Beaux-Arts manner. As such it is the most successful of the two Garden Cities in England, a forerunner of the New Towns and much post-war planning. Unfortunately, it has worked so well that the name ‘Garden – city, village, suburb’ has been hijacked by cynical governments dispensing diktats from Whitehall. As there will be a Gardens Trust conference in Welwyn Garden City on the development and future of the town (25 July 2020), this talk will concentrate on the town at present and the plans for its future and that of the surrounding hinterland – Howard’s Green Belt – which is being eroded to fill ‘Objectively Assessed Need’ for housing.