Licencing laws Pt 2!

I have heard further criticisms, from local residents, concerning the proposed licencing laws affecting Baldock!
Apparently this will be addressed at a forthcoming council meeting. I will keep you informed on how this goes!

More on Elmwood Court jumble sale!

I have been told that they raised £650.
Many thanks for those of you who attended.

Elmwood Court

At last. First piece of news given to the Baldock Blog!
Elmwood Court are hosting a jumble sale at 10:30AM on Saturday 17th September.
All are welcome

Baldock and Fame

Was browsing through Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia and I found that Baldock has an entry. I have copied it here below:

Baldock
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Location within the British IslesBaldock is a town in Hertfordshire, England on the River Ivel. It is in the local government district of North Hertfordshire.

Baldock was founded by the Knights Templar (also the name of the town's secondary school) in the twelth century, indeed the word Baldock is believed to be a corruption of Baghdad, which the Templars would have visited during the crusades (However, some have suggested that the name is more likely to be derived from "Bald Oak", meaning a dead oak, and that Baghdad was not, in fact, visited by the Crusaders). The modern layout of the town, and many buildings in the centre, date from the sixteenth century.

The town grew up where the old Great North Road and the Icknield Way crossed. Even though the Great North Road, later the A1 no longer passes through the town centre (since the construction of the A1(M) motorway in 1970), the town is still a major traffic bottleneck. This should be relieved before 2006 when the new bypass removes the A505 road (old Icknield Way) from the town. Due to its location, the town was a major staging post between London and the north, with many old coaching inns still operating as pubs and hotels, and has a surprising number of pubs considering its size.

The number of pubs becomes less suprising once the adjacent, much larger town of Letchworth is visited. Letchworth has very few pubs (only two plus the hotel bar up until the mid 1990's) for it's large population who have for many years visited Baldock for refreshment.

There has been human activity on the site well before the modern town was founded. Many Roman remains have been discovered during building work in and around the town, and the site of the Roman settlement is located near the Hartsfield Primary School in the town. Earlier Iron Age remains have also been uncovered, as well as a medieval leper colony, located on Clothall Road (formerly Pesthouse Lane).

An authoritative history of "Baldock's Middle Ages" (ISBN 0 905858 97 2) was complied by Vivian Crellin, a former headmaster of the Knights Templar secondary school.

Baldock was formerly the location of a film studio, the Art Deco facade of which still stands—converted to a supermarket in the late 1980s. Another notable building in the town is the fourteenth century Baldock Parish Church of St Mary. Malting and brewing were formerly major industries in the town, but apart from some light industry, today it is mostly a commuter town.

grid reference TL247337
[edit]
Nearby villages
Ashwell
Bygrave
Caldecote
Clothall
Hinxworth
Newnham
Radwell
Wallington
Weston
[edit]
External link
Information about the town

This English location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldock"
Categories: England geography stubs | Towns in Hertfordshire
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Encouraging to know really ;)!

Licensing laws!

(Comet Newspaper)



One of those occasions when, what makes the national news also affects Baldock.
The following appeared in The Comet this week:

Residents fear that Baldock could be turned into a paradise for drinkers, increasing problems of vandalism, rowdy behaviour and noise as town centre pubs get permission to stay open later.

They are concerned that locals could be joined by a flood of others from outside the town for drinking sessions which get out of hand.

They expressed their fears at the licensing session for The Engine and White Hart pubs on Tuesday, heard by North Herts district councillors.

I have to say that I totally agree, even speaking here as an individual member of the Labour Party!
The ideas behind the licensing laws are wel-meaning, but misguided. They don't take into account that in Europe there is a different drinking culture. For example a bottle of wine usually accompanies a meal, but that bottle lasts the whole day, not during lunch!
I also believe however, that those pubs which will not take advantage of the new licensing laws, will have the support of many people within the Baldock area.