Hope and Anchor, Welham Green

Welham Green is a village in the parish of North Mymms, Hertfordshire, England. It is situated a mile to the west of the Great North Road coaching route that used to run through the neighbouring hamlet of Bell Bar from London to York and the north. The Great North Road is now by-passed by the A1(M). Even so, Welham Green has developed into a small village over the last 100 years, helped by the 1986 opening of its own railway station between Brookmans Park and Hatfield on the East Coast Main Line. Recent housing development has portended the joining of the village with the neighbouring town of Hatfield. Some residents, including the North Mymms Green Belt Society, wishing to maintain Welham Green's character, have resisted such development.

On a frosty Boxing day in 1870 the driver of the 16:25 from London King's Cross to Peterborough noticed an 'uneasy oscillation' as he passed over Marshmoor level crossing, 2 miles south of Hatfield station. He peered back and discovered he had lost his train and pulled up. He reversed back, preceded by his fireman on foot showing a red light. They were met by the white-faced guard who told them there had been a disaster. The driver reversed direction again and sped to Hatfield to warn oncoming traffic and summon help. It transpired that as the train approached the crossing the left hand leading wheel of the van at the front of the train had disintegrated and the coupling between the van and the locomotive had parted and the van and two following coaches had run off the rails onto the roadway demolishing a wall, and the crossing gates and posts and killing the mother and sister of a signalman who were waiting at the crossing. In addition six passengers in the two coaches were killed. The accident inspector criticized the method of tyre fixing and recommended, not for the first time, the use of Mansell composite wheels on passenger rolling stock.

Welham Green railway station serves the village of Welham Green in Hertfordshire, England. It is 15 miles 50 chains (25.1 km) measured from King's Cross on the East Coast Main Line.Welham Green is just south of the scene of the Hatfield rail crash in 2000 and was initially identified in BBC broadcasts as the location of the accident.

Mimmshall Brook is a 9.8 kilometres (6.1 mi) long stream (brook) in Greater London and Hertfordshire, England. Rising from two sources—one in Hertsmere, Hertfordshire, and the other in Arkley, London Borough of Barnet—the brook drains into a catchment area of 52 km² (20 sq mi) at Water End Swallow Holes, Welham Green, North Mymms. It is a tributary of the River Colne.

Water End Swallow Holes is a biological site of Special Scientific Interest in Hertfordshire, south-east England. Located in Welham Green and under the planning authority of Welwyn Hatfield District Council, it has an area of 11.3 hectares (27.9 acres).The site covers more than fifteen swallet holes, the only ones in chalk which are a permanent feature of the landscape. Next to the holes is a swamp area of willow carr which is biologically important, and in deep water there is reed sweet-grass. The site also has areas of woodland and grassland. From the sinkholes the waters become the River Colne. There is access to the site from Station Road.

North Mymms is a civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. At the 2011 Census the civil parish had a population of 8,921.The village itself is an enclosure. North Mymms Park and Brookmans Park enclose large areas of the parish. Even the parish church (St Mary's) stands in the park of North Mymms; in it is a chapel, the burialplace of the Coningsbys. There is a monument to Robert Knolles, also of North Mymms Place, dated 1458, and a brass to a priest. There is a large monument to Lord Somers, Baron Evesham, and lord chancellor in the time of William III, d. 1716. The monument was erected by his sister, Lady Elizabeth Jekyll. The civil parish includes: North Mymms Place: The Elizabethan house of 1576 belonged to the Coningsby family. John Conningsby died in 1544 and entailed the house to his wife, Elizabeth, during her lifetime. Elizabeth remarried to William Dodds. On Elizabeth's and subsequently William's death, the house reverted to John's son, Henry in 1576, which he then demolished and built a new mansion house between 1576-1578. Tree-ring dating of the main roof timbers confirms these dates. During the ownership of Thomas Coningsby, a Royalist leader in Hertfordshire, the house was plundered by the Parliamentarians. Later North Mymms Park belonged to the Hyde family. The house is famous for its collection of tapestries and for its panelling and fittings. An early 17th-century painted frieze of the "Nine Worthies" was rediscovered in the 20th century.North Mymms House was a location for the 1983 film The Wicked Lady, starring Faye Dunaway as a bored aristocratic lady who takes up highway robbery, while the exterior appeared in Agatha Christie's Marple's The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side as the house of Marina Gregg. Bell Bar Brookmans Park: The park includes the former park of Gobions (demolished), once the property of Sir Thomas More, and around the turn of the 19th century to an East India merchant, Thomas Holmes, whose daughter became the novelist Ann Doherty. A lofty castellated gateway in the park is now called "The Folly". In 1956 North Mymms Parish Council acquired the land and the lake now known as Gobions Open Space. Water End Welham GreenNorth Mymms is also home to the Hawkshead Campus of the Royal Veterinary College, part of the University of London. The campus also includes the Equine Referral Hospital, and the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals. At the 2011 Census the population was 8,921.

Brookmans Park railway station serves the village of Brookmans Park in Hertfordshire, England. The station is located 14 miles 37 chains (23.3 km) north of London Kings Cross on the East Coast Main Line, on the stretch between Finsbury Park and Hatfield.

Oxleys Wood is a 1.2 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Hatfield in Hertfordshire. The declaring authority is Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. The wood floods in wet weather, particularly the northern part, which has a pond. Tree species include oak, ash, elm and willow, and they provide a habitat for insects which provide food for birds.There is access from Deerswood Avenue opposite Badgers Way.

Brookmans Park is a village in Hertfordshire, southeast England, known for its BBC transmitter station. Brookmans Park railway station, on the East Coast Main Line, is operated by Great Northern. It is also a waypoint used in air navigation by Heathrow Airport.

The Hatfield rail crash was a railway accident on 17 October 2000, at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. It was caused by a metal fatigue-induced derailment, killing four people and injuring more than 70. The accident exposed major stewardship shortcomings of the privatised national railway infrastructure company Railtrack. Reports found there was a lack of communication and some staff were not aware of maintenance procedures. Railtrack subsequently went into administration and was replaced by Network Rail. The aftermath of the accident saw widespread speed limit reductions throughout the rail network and a tightening of health and safety procedures, the repercussions of which were still felt years later. In 2005, both Railtrack and the contractor Balfour Beatty were found guilty of breaching health and safety laws.

The Queen Mother Hospital for Animals (QMHA) is a teaching hospital located near Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. More than 100 veterinary nurses work alongside students, residents, interns, and specialty surgeons.In 2008 the Royal Veterinary College completed the third phase of development of the QMHA. This development supports the continued expansion of both secondary and tertiary medical and surgical services for small animals, built around support services such as Emergency and Critical Care, Anaesthesia and Diagnostic Imaging. It first opened in 1986.There is also a strategic focus on the development of first opinion small animal services at the Beaumont Animals’ Hospital, serving the Kings Cross, London area.

Howe Dell is a 4 hectare Local Nature Reserve in Hatfield in Hertfordshire. The declaring authority is Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. The site is woodland which runs along both sides of a stream with steep sides. The main trees are hornbeam, oak and beech. There is access from Honeysuckle Gardens.