About us

The Sawbridgeworth Local History Society

Our Society was formed in April 2016. Prior to this a number of people had been involved in a World War One Commemoration Group hosted by the Town Council. Encouraged and helped by the Herts at War Organisation and by Sawbridgeworth Town Council, that group organised a number of events, most noteworthy being a World War One exhibition, held in the autumn of 2015. This inspired a number of us to branch out, initially via a Sawbridgeworth U3A local history group, into an independent society, whose aim is to research, collect, record and preserve the heritage of our town and the surrounding area.

Talks and Walks

We organise evening talks at the Hailey Centre or Memorial Hall, usually on the last Thursday of the month. We support primary school history walks and organise town walks based on Wally Wright’s leaflet (this, and the Millennium Walk leaflet, are available from the Town Council, the library and at events we attend). The Millennium Walk has nine QR codes in different locations around the town, which link to information on our website. We also contribute to a Gt St Mary’s churchyard walk at the May Fayre. The talks, meetings, and walks are advertised on our website, on social media, in the Flyer, Link and Bishop’s Stortford Independent. as well as on posters in shops and on town noticeboards. We have stalls at the May Fayre, the High Wych Scarecrow festival and co-organise the annual November Nostalgia Day at the Memorial Hall each November.

Remembrance

We lay wreaths to remember the October 1940 Cambridge Road bomb victims in October, and at the High Wych and Gt St Mary’s Remembrance services, as well as at the airfield on Nostalgia Day.

We usually meet on the last Thursday of most months for a talk or general meeting. Details of future meetings and talks can be found here under Programme.

If you want to join us you can fill in the form here.

If you have a message, a story you want to share or some interesting pictures please get in touch via our Contact page.

Upcoming Events

View Calendar

Our Books

Full of photos and maps, more than 150 of them, in fact; this book will remind you of the High Wych of your youth and remind you of the people and places you knew or were always told about.

We offer free shipping to the CM21 postcode, please use voucher code CM21 at the checkout. If this voucher code is applied for a shipping address outside the CM21 postcode your order will not be shipped.

High Wych History in Pictures

We have published a wide range of articles and books:

  • High Wych History in Pictures;
  • The Story of Sawbridgeworth;
  • High Wych, Sawbridgeworth and the Great War;
  • Sawbridgeworth Town Mill;
  • Allotments in Sawbridgeworth and
  • The Changing Face of Sawbridgeworth.

We have also reprinted Where the Lysanders Were and we stock and sell Liz Waugh’s Rivers Nursery of Sawbridgeworth. 

A Sawbridgeworth History in Pictures book is planned for 2024.

CLICK TO VIEW OUR INTERACTIVE TOWN WALK MAP

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