| Hemel Hempstead ' Hertfordshire is an early eighth | | | | names such as Haamstede and even Heemstede. |
| century settlement that today has become a town | | | | The New York town of Hempstead too owes a lot to |
| with a population of fewer than one hundred thousand | | | | Hemel Hempstead as many of the people that |
| people. In fact, it was only after the end of the Second | | | | immigrated to this part of New York were actually |
| World War that it was developed into a town | | | | immigrants from Hemel Hempstead in England. |
| because before that it was no bigger than a | | | | This town was first mentioned in a grant made by |
| settlement. Today, it forms part of the district called | | | | Offa the King of Essex and it referred to transference |
| Dacorum. | | | | of land to a Saxon Bishop in the year AD 705. There |
| In the beginning, Hemel Hempstead ' Hertfordshire was | | | | are references to this town in Domesday Book and |
| a settlement in the valley near where the rivers | | | | after conquest by the Normans the land in the vicinity |
| Bulbourne and Gade confluence and it is also just | | | | was bequeathed to Count of Mortain. |
| twenty-seven miles to the northwest of London. It has | | | | Since then the estates have changed hands many |
| existed since the times of William the Conqueror and | | | | times over and some of the owners of this land |
| its name has undergone many changes ' beginning with | | | | include names such as Thomas Becket and also the |
| Henamsted and Hean-Hempstead and then onto the | | | | Earl of Cornwall who presented the manor to the |
| High Hemstead and so on. | | | | Bonhommes. |
| Before the Second World War it was affectionately | | | | Then in the year 1946 the government deemed Hemel |
| known as Hempstead though today it is mostly | | | | Hempstead to be a site where people displaced by |
| referred to as Hemel. There may even be a link | | | | the bombing of London would be housed. |
| between its name and those of places in Holland with | | | | |