The early farming community was supported by many craftsmen and businesses - from brewers and carpenters to tanners and wheelwrights. The range of businesses has expanded over the centuries: some survive in name alone (Anvil House, High Street) and some survived by adapting to changing needs (Ogglesbys). Professional and scientific institutions also contribute to employment in Harpenden.
A history of 'The Almagam'
Heavy duty hoses made in Batford
Brauer's of Harpenden
The success story of a local industry
Claygate Orchards
From Harpenden Free Press, March 1955
Creekmouth Village
Built by John Bennet Lawes for workers at his Chemical Factory on the Thames
F.P.& C. SPORTS & SOCIAL CLUB
A firm settles into Harpenden in 1939 for the war years
Harpenden's Post Office
Expansion and contraction over more than 160 years
Loss of a Family Friend
End of the NatWest Bank in Harpenden
Oggelsby's - the Blacksmiths at Southdown
My boyhood memories of the 1890s and 1900s
Oggelsby's Centenary - 1873 to 1973
A family's history in the transportation business
Ox Lane Nurseries
Extract from Miss C.M. Clutterbuck's "Manland" Scrapbook, 1980s
Reads' Motors
Successful business founded by Charles and William Read in 1921
Stained Glass in Harpenden - Geoffrey Harper's contribution
Review of "A Life in Glass - Portrait of a Stained Glass Artist" by Francesca Stevens
T Simons Wine and Spirit Merchant
Tracing the story of a storage jar
The History behind Numbers 24 and 26 Station Road
Taken from documents in LHS Archives donated by The Anscombe Family
The Laurels Guest House
A Feature of Post War Harpenden
The Park Stables
A Brief History
Wilson Brothers garage, Southdown
From sheds to Southdown Industrial Estate
Apprenticeship in 1911
Henry Edgar Salisbury - Master : Arthur Cecil Chalkley - Apprentice
Basket Making at Batford
Willow canes were specially planted near the River Lea downstream from Batford Mill
125 years of Barclays Bank
Harpenden's Barclays Bank - from Jubilee to Jubilee
Batford Mill - 1850s and 1860s
William Freelove Divers - Miller
Businesses in Bowling Alley & Southdown
From the mid 19th century to the 1990s
Edwin Richard Billingham 1870-1961
Owner of a music shop in Station Road
Electrocult Ltd
Manufacturers of soil sterilizers
Green Lawns, Kinsbourne Green
Garage and Country Club from 1920 to the 1940s
Harpenden Breweries
Two side by side in the nineteen century High Street
Hawes & Harris, stained glass window makers
Harpenden craftsmen made RAF memorial windows in Westminster Abbey
Heathfield Works
Industrial site by Harpenden Common
Inn on the Green
From hardware shop to pub in 100 years
Jarvis the Builder
13 Vaughan Road - 1909-1974
Putterills' Garage
Early High Street Photo
The Dunkley Family (Harpenden Blacksmiths)
From Sheepskin Hall on the Common to New Zealand
The Elliott 401 Computer at Rothamsted
First electronic computer in civilian research
The Harpenden Ink Factory
at 70 Station Road - now Kinloch Court
The Jarvis brothers - founders of a Harpenden building company
Ernest Charles Jarvis (1881-1966) & Frank H Jarvis (1886-1962)
The making of Vaughan Road
Demolitions in the 1890s to open up the new road
The Pathology Labs
Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Fisheries labs at Hatching Green
The Putterill family
Founders of garage and timber businesses
Watercress Beds
Beds fed by springs alongside the River Lea
Waverley Mills
Letter by Miss J Lawrence