Events 2025
Free spaces filling fast for life-changing night under the stars...Sponsored Sleepout on Friday 21st November, with free places available for everyone in the community.
The countdown is on for the eagerly-awaited DENS Sponsored Sleepout on Friday 21st November – and there’s still time to secure free places.
Hosted at Hammond Academy in Hemel Hempstead, this unique charity event invites the community to come together for an unforgettable experience under the stars – all in support of local people facing homelessness.
With the cold weather setting in and more people than ever turning to DENS for support, now is the time to sign up, rally your sponsors and make a real impact.
Last year’s event raised a record-breaking £33,000, and this year, DENS is aiming even higher. Every participant who beds down for the night will help fund vital services that provide accommodation, food and support to those in crisis.
Francesca Ayers and Chris Loake, a couple from Hemel Hempstead, know just how powerful the Sleepout can be.
“It was a challenge, well organised and people I knew were very generous. It inspired me to give it another go,” said Francesca, who took part for the first time last year.
Chris, a Scout leader who’s joined multiple Sleepouts, added: “The atmosphere is incredibly positive and supportive. One year we woke up to snow – it was utterly magical.”
The evening promises live music, family-friendly activities and an eye-opening Q&A about the realities of homelessness. As night falls, participants will swap their beds for cardboard and sleeping bags – gaining a small glimpse into the harsh conditions rough sleepers face.
“It’s friendly, safe and jolly,” Francesca concluded. “You leave with a real sense of achievement and making a difference.”
The event is proudly sponsored by Safran Electrical & Power UK, a leading aerospace company, based in Pitstone, that is committed to supporting local causes.
Don’t miss your chance to be part of something special. Guarantee your free places today.
Free places for the DENS Sponsored Sleepout are available now at www.dens.org.uk/sleepout25.
The Harpenden Society Public Meeting Oct 16 2025
Question Time with Our MP Victoria Collins
In front to a lively audience at the Katherine Warington School, Victoria outlined her activities over her first year in the House of Commons.
In summary, she stated she is one of the 20 most active members in the House, and in just over a year, she and her small team have been involved in over 10,000 personal and political issues with residents and others. She has attended over 600 debates, questions and speeches in the House, and asked 4 questions of the Prime Minister, and held over 300 advice surgeries, meetings and other local visits
One small anecdote from her early days in the House was that she walked into a cupboard thinking it was the door to the ladies toilet!
The key subjects she focussed on include social care (especially dementia and mental health), special education needs, the cost of living and holding the Environmental Protection Agency/Water Companies to account for the appalling levels of raw sewage discharge into our river systems and streams.
As leader for the LibDems on Science, Innovation and Technology, she is a highly vocal campaigner for online safety, and is promoting ethical AI innovation, not least pushing for a standard for age for data consent, which is supported by Bernardo’s and Mumsnet.
In answering questions for the audience, she was asked what influence, as the third party in the House, the LibDems had on the Government. No hesitation in her reply – plenty – soft influence through collaboration with all parties, and hard influence through membership of select committees, parliamentary questions and through national media.
She was then asked where the LibDems are re Europe, and her answer was an unequivocal yes to entering a customs union with the EU, given the economic disaster that Brexit had always been expected to deliver.
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October. New Exhibition – Everyday Life in Edwardian Harpenden
Now open in Harpenden’s Museum at the EMC.
In 1979 Harpenden’s History Society ran a competition for recollections of life in Harpenden before 1914. It attracted 15 contributions with the age of entrants ranging up to 100 years old. The exhibition draws on those memories to provide a picture of what living in Harpenden was like in those halcyon days before World War 1.
The contributors remember such things as the Statty Fair on Church Green, the burning down of St John’s Church, the shops in Harpenden, horses and carts but no cars, and early school life.
Trustee David Kendall commented: “The exhibition shows that in some ways things have not changed: potholes in the roads, long working days. On the other hand, children spent their days outside, playing in the street, roaming in the countryside, or skating on Harpenden’s ponds. Outside lavatories at home and no central heating made life a lot less comfortable than nowadays!”
There will also be an ever-popular display of Then and Now photos showing how Harpenden has changed over the last 125 years. The exhibition continues until the end of January.
For an absorbing life story and a treasure trove of detail about Harpenden and its people, together with reflections on national and international events, see Theodora's Journals written by Harpenden resident, Theodora Wilson, covering the period from 1885 to 1937, reprinted 2025. Copies may be purchased from the Museum, in the Eric Morecambe Centre, ordinarily open 11am-3pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
The Mayor's Christmas Card Competition is now open and local children are invited to design the Mayor's official card. the winner will also turn on the Town's Christmas lights at the Carnival! Click on the link to find out more!
Oct 31 - Nov 2. Harpenden’s biggest Art Exhibtion of the Year.
Organised by Harpenden Art Club
FREE ENTRY at the Harpenden Trust Centre in Southdown. See an amazing exhibition of art by local artists.
Open 10am - 5pm Friday & Saturday 10am -4pm Sunday
PUBLIC LECTURE: Grain, Trade and Pilgrims, Dr Alexander Thomas.
Venue: High Street Methodist Church, High Street, Harpenden, AL5 2RU
When: 8pm, Tuesday, 28 October
The next Harpenden & District Local History Society lecture is by Dr Alexander Thomas and entitled Grain, Trade and Pilgrims: Harpenden from Prehistory to Medieval. This lecture will explore the key events which shaped Harpenden’s development and the big questions still remaining about its early history.
Dr Thomas says: “From prehistory to the medieval period, Harpenden’s fertile landscape has been both a source of prosperity and conflict. Harpenden was a contested landscape for royal and ecclesiastical authority. The cultivation of grain is fundamental to understanding the town’s ancient origins, but control of its harvest yields fuelled centuries of political disputes over its land ownership.”
Dr Alexander Thomas is an archaeological and historical researcher and author of Viking Age England. He was born and brought up in Harpenden.
Lectures are free to Society members and
students; visitors are welcome, and a
£5 donation is requested. Booking is
not required; just turn up. As well as
free on-street parking in the evening,
the Methodist Church benefits from
direct pedestrian access to the back
from Bowers Way (West) public car
park, lower level, behind Sainsbury’s.
New members joining now, and
until the year end, buy membership
through to the end of 2026.
