History of Hertfordshire - Modern Era

Modern Era

In the last two centuries, Hertfordshire's population has multiplied tenfold. Around the end of the 18th century, its population was around 95,000. In 1821, it was just under 130,000. In 1881 it was just over 203,000, and by 1921 it was just over 333,000. By the 2001 census, it was 1,033,977. During the 18th century brewing became an important industry in Hertfordshire.

Smallpox broke out in Hertford gaol in 1729, and spread into the town. The next year, smallpox hit Hitchin, killing 158 people. The River Lea Navigation Act of 1739 led to the river being improved, becoming navigable as far as Ware. Locks were built in Ware, Broxbourne, and "Stanstead" (presumably Stanstead Abbotts rather than Stansted Mountfitchet, which is not on the Lea). By 1797, the Grand Junction Canal (now called the Grand Union Canal) was being cut. Its highest point is the Tring Summit in Hertfordshire, which was formed in 1799. Because a canal barge can hold so much more than a wagon, the waterways expansions increased the quantity of supplies that could reach London (and the amount of refuse and manure that could be carted away).

Mobilisation for the Seven Years War affected Hertfordshire. In 1756, £350 was paid to the inns and public houses of Ware for the troops staying with them. The next year, Pitt's army reforms made Hertfordshire liable to provide 560 officers and men.

The county also contributed soldiers to the French Revolutionary Wars. On 7 May 1794, lists opened for the Hertfordshire Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, which comprised five troops of cavalry. The Loyal Hemel Hempstead Volunteers formed in 1797. Two further troops of volunteers were raised in 1798, at Borehamwood and Sawbridgeworth, and the same year, the Hitchin Volunteers were also raised, but their duty was only to defend land within three miles (5 km) of Hitchin.

In 1795, a Dr Walker wrote a report on agriculture and forestry in the county. He said "Herts is justly deemed the first and best corn county in the kingdom", an assessment that may not be free from local bias. It nevertheless shows how more advanced farming techniques and soil improvement programmes had enabled farmers to work Hertfordshire's "heavier" soils to better effect since the Saxon–Norse wars.

Thanks to a rapidly-increasing population and improved record-keeping practices, the volume of paper records for Hertfordshire in the 19th and 20th centuries is huge. Many of these documents are written or printed on paper made locally, at a time when paper-making joined brewing as another dominant industry in the county.

In 1809, John Dickinson purchased Apsley Mills in Hemel Hempstead for his newly-patented paper-making machine. In a dispute with the Society of Paper-Makers in 1821, he dismissed the men involved and trained replacements. By 1825, Apsley and Nash Mills in Hemel Hempstead were using steam power to produce paper. Dickinson patented his silk threadpaper in 1829, which was used, among other things, for Exchequer Bonds, and had to be made under supervision from two excise men. He built Croxley Mills, near Rickmansworth, in 1830 and Abbots Hill, Nash Mills, in 1836.

In 1840, the Uniform Penny Post came in. Dickinson made paper for the stamps, and also for the Mulready envelopes. He built a private gas works at Apsley in 1851. In March 1886, John Dickinson & Co. Ltd. was incorporated with £500,000 in capital and 10 acres (40,000 m2) of glass houses. By 1900, the company had 264 acres (1.07 km2) of glass houses in the Cheshunt area.

The 19th century was also a busy period for the military. Ten corps of Volunteer Infantry were formed in 1803. In 1804, the clock tower in St Albans signalled news of the Battle of Trafalgar by semaphore. The Duke of Wellington earned the freedom of the borough of St Albans after Napoleon's defeat in 1814. The Hertfordshire Regiment became the fourth battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment in 1891, and in March 1900, the 42nd (Hertfordshire) Company of the Imperial Yeomanry landed at Cape Town. Cecil Rhodes, who founded De Beers and the state of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), was born in South Street, Bishops Stortford, in 1853. The house is still standing, and has been adapted into a museum. He spent much of his youth in South Africa, but returned to Bishops Stortford in 1873.

The first branch railway line in England was the Aylesbury one, which opened in 1839. It had a station in Hertfordshire, at Marston Gate. Another rail line grew out from London towards Cambridge, reaching Broxbourne in 1840, Harlow in 1841, and Bishops Stortford in 1842. A branch to Hertford opened in 1843. The first Hatfield train crash took place on Boxing Day, 1870. The London Underground rail line reached Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire in 1887.