Hertford East railway station

Hertford East railway station is one of two stations in Hertford in Hertfordshire, England, the other being Hertford North station. The station is 24 ¹⁄₄ miles (39.0 km) north of London Liverpool Street and is the terminus of the Hertford East Branch of the West Anglia Main Line with train services provided by Abellio Greater Anglia. There are two platforms, although platform one is only used during peak times and primarily for trains to and from Stratford.

History

The current station, which was designed by W. N. Ashbee, was opened by the Great Eastern Railway on Monday 27 February 1888, replacing a station further to the east which dated from the opening of the branch line from Broxbourne in 1843. The station was listed in 1974 as a Grade II* listed building; in 1996 the buffer lights on Platform One were separately listed in their own right.

Services and Amenities

The typical off-peak service from the station is two trains per hour to/from London Liverpool Street via Tottenham Hale. During peak times a few trains operate via Seven Sisters as well as additional services to/from Stratford station via Tottenham Hale and services starting/terminating short at Broxbourne. On Sundays there is an hourly service to Liverpool Street via Stratford and an hourly service to Stratford. These services are operated by British Rail Class 317 units.

Hertford

Coordinates: 51°47′42″N 0°04′41″W / 51.795°N 0.078°W / 51.795; -0.078

Hertford (/ˈhɑːrᵗfərd/) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2011 census put the population of Hertford at about 26,000.

Toponomy

The earliest reference to the town appears in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written by Bede in 731 AD, which refers to "Herutford". "Herut" is the Old English spelling of "hart", meaning a fully mature stag; thus the meaning of the name is a ford where harts are found. The Domesday Book of 1086 gives a spelling of "Hertforde".

Governance

Hertford has been the county town of Hertfordshire since Saxon times when it was governed by the king's reeves. By the 13th century, the reeves had been replaced by a bailiff, elected by the burgesses. Charters of 1554 and 1589 established a common council of eleven chief burgesses and a bailiff. Another charter of 1605 changed the bailiff's title to mayor. In 1835, Hertford became a Municipal Corporation; the ratepayers elected twelve councillors, who chose four aldermen, aldermen and councillors composing the council. This body elected the mayor.

Hertford (1920)

Hertford (formerly Rheinland and Friesland) was a freighter which was built in Germany in 1917 and served with both the Hamburg-Amerika Linie and Federal Steam Navigation Co Ltd before being lost after torpedoing by the German submarine U-571 off the coast of Massachusetts in 1942. She was also extensively damaged after striking a German mine off the Australian coast in 1940.

Origins

She was built by Bremer Vulkan at Bremen-Vegesack in Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Germany. She was launched in October 1917 under the name Rheinland and completed in June 1920 as Friesland for the Hamburg-Amerika Linie (HAPAG), Hamburg. In 1922, she transferred to Great Britain as war reparations and sold to the Federal Steam Navigation Co Ltd who renamed her as Hertford.

Incident in Australian waters during 1940

On 7 December 1940, Hertford struck a mine approximately 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi) west-south west of the Neptune Islands off the South Australian coast in a mine field placed by the German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin during November 1940. She was towed to Port Lincoln for temporary repairs, then to Port Adelaide where further repairs were carried out and then she sailed to Sydney where she was dry-docked to complete repairs. The mine field was the subject of a mine sweeping operation in 1946 using German naval records to ensure that all mines had been accounted for.

Hertford (UK Parliament constituency)

Hertford was the name of a parliamentary constituency in Hertfordshire, which elected Members of Parliament (MPs) from 1298 until 1974. It was represented in the House of Commons of England from 1298 to 1707, then of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and finally in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1974.

From 1298 it was a borough consisting of the town of Hertford, electing two MPs until 1868 and one from 1868 to 1885. In 1885 the borough was abolished and the name was transferred to the county constituency which contained the town.

The constituency disappeared in the redistribution at the February 1974 general election, being mostly included in the new Hertford and Stevenage constituency.

Boundaries

1885-1918: The Municipal Borough of Hertford, the Sessional Divisions of Bishop's Stortford and Cheshunt, parts of the Sessional Divisions of Hertford and Ware, and in the Sessional Division of Aldbury the civil parishes of Great Hadham and Little Hadham.