Summer Ramble - 22 August

Central's Summer Ramble took place this year on Saturday 22 August in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK, where DF member David Edwards led us round the Old Town's many sites of Dickensian interest. He and a friend, Helen - both clad in suitably Dickensian costume - entertained and informed the group with the history of the area and a selection of appropriate readings from Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings and Oliver Twist. 

The ramble passed Hatfield House, where Dickens witnessed and reported on a fire in November 1835 - an experience reflected in Bill Sikes's witnessing of a fire there as he fled London in Oliver Twist. - and The Eight Bells pub, where Sikes (and probably Dickens before him) subsequently supped a pint. It also took in the churchyard, where Mrs Lirriper says her husband is buried, and the building that once housed The Saracen's Head, which also features in Dickens's tales of Mrs Lirriper.

A pleasant half hour break was spent in the old stables area of the house, now a small retail park with businesses ranging from a restaurant and ice cream parlour to a gunsmiths, and the ramble concluded with a refreshing drink in The Horse & Groom.

Many thanks to David for organising such an enjoyable ramble. 

Our monthly meetings resume at The Charterhouse on Tuesday 22 September, 6 for 6:30pm. Please sign in at the Porters' Lodge on arrival and you will be directed to our meeting room.