Earlier this year, the Abbots Langley Local History Society applied to the Vernacular Architecture Group for a grant of £980.00 to drill and take tree ring samples from the timbers making up the frame of the barn in Dairy Way, Abbots Langley known as Tithe Barn Court. This application was approved in April, samples were taken in July and the analysis is now complete. Lee Prosser is the Chair of the Vernacular Architecture Group and he will present the results of the survey. The name of the barn implies that it was used to store tithes, but it is more likely to have been a grange barn built by Abbot John Moote of St Albans Abbey in 1396 making it the oldest secular building in Abbots Langley. But has this been proved?

The talk is about a remarkable Palace which no longer exists. But this is no mythical Camelot, even though you will find precious few physical remains of the Royal Palace at Langley above the ground. Such history now exists only on a few written pages and the memory and imagination of those who know its story. However, defining elements of our shared past were seeded within its stone and flint walls. Not least because the creators of this once magnificent Royal Palace were the Plantagenet rulers of thirteenth and fourteenth–century England, who favoured it as a royal residence for one-hundred-and-twenty-five years.

Michael Long is a historian, author, teacher and novelist. After many years of teaching, he turned to writing and publishing historical articles in UK and US journals. His love of medieval history always endured, encouraging him to use this as the back drop for his novel, Shadows on the Queen: A St Albans medieval Mystery (Apsley Press 2022) which is based on recorded events and set in the reign of Edward I. Michael still teaches medieval history to adults through the WEA.

Michael will be selling and signing copies of his new book, Palace Lives, at Abbots Langley Library on Saturday 14th October 2023 09:30-12:30.

Today, Leavesden Park South is a tranquil haven for strolling and relaxing. Yet between August 1945 and April 1946 it was a buzzing seat of learning, the site of a university for six hundred Canadian servicemen. It was known as the Khaki University. In the Leavesden Hospital buildings the young men studied for academic and vocational qualifications. They also socialised in the Students' Union, enjoyed films and dances in the campus hall, and spent time with the local ladies of Abbots Langley and Leavesden. Field Marshall Montgomery and the King and Queen came to visit. Yet after just eight months the students handed in their books and returned home. The site briefly became a teacher training college, then reverted to its use as a hospital.

This presentation tells the story of the Canadian Khaki University of Leavesden: why and how it was established, the daily routines, the academic and extra-curricular activities of the students, the links with the local community, and the positive impact upon the former servicemen when they returned to Canada in the post-war world. According to one student: "The Brass Hats must have been on holiday when they thought of this one!"

Frank Iddiols and Jon Mein tell the story of the canal linking St Albans to the wider world that came close to being built in the 1790s. They consider why the canal was never built, who was for and who was against the expensive proposals, and the planned route of both the canal and, in a surprising coda, the replacement railway service.

The story of WW2 spy Nancy Wake

“The Legend of the White Mouse” tells the story of WW2 spy Nancy Wake who became a hugely successful spy for the famous SOE (Special Operations Executive) and the Gestapo’s ‘Most Wanted’ agent in France.

Our speaker Paul Barwick, who had a full career in police intelligence and counter terrorism, will explore her life and amazing exploits making her one of the most decorated Allied agents of the war.