h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Welwyn Garden City - A3755847
Author: Mina - U290

I've worked there for a couple of months, so I thought I'd fill in this gap in the Guide - the towns either side of WGC are already in here.

It's not an interesting place to work, although I hope to visit the Roman Baths very soon, so might be able to add a little bit to that section.

Hi Mina!

Another great entry!

What is Britain's first garden city? Could this be put into a footnote?

Developed in 1920 but the shops opened in 1990? This left me questioning what happened during the intervening years...

What is the population of the town?

Just my own viewpoint, but the last sentence about the dogging rumour doesn't work - it seems incongruous - why single out this one activity in relation to the town overall? Personally I think it should be removed as it doesn't really add to entry.

Well done!

Woodpigeon

I found a few stats about the population, and didn't know which one to believe. I'll ring the local council on Monday, they should know?

I've taken that odd statement out, you were right, it didn't fit.

The shopping centre was built in 1990, but the *town* centre which I also mentioned was there since the town was built, do you think that's not clear enough?

Should I call the shopping centre something else?

I was just going to ask for some population numbers, so I'm glad you'll take care of that.

"The town is home to many well known businesses, Tesco, Xerox and Roche to name a few. ‘Shredded Wheat’ is made in the town."

What do you mean 'home' to them? Is this town the corporate headquarters of Xerox, or does it have a copy place on a street corner?

Good entry.

I wonder if 'new town' needs to be capitalised, and maybe explained in a footnote. After all, new town in the case of places like Welwyn means more than just 'a town that's new'. Or did New Towns only come about after the war - Harlow for instance?

"The idea of a Garden City is that it brings together the economic and cultural advantages of both city and country living, a self-contained community living within green belt or agricultural land to discourage the city from sprawling into the surrounding areas, its size planned in advance and limited."
That sentence runs on a good deal, I think. You could probably replace the first comma with a full stop and make the rest of it a sentence on its own.

This one runs on too:
"Roman Baths were excavated before the A1(M) was built and are preserved in a steel vault in an embankment along the A1(M) and were once part of a 3rd century Roman villa"
'Baths' doesn't need a capital, but 'century' does. Do you know if the existence of the baths was known before the motorway was built, or were they discovered at the time of building? And what exactly does 'along the A1(M)' mean? Are they in an embankment underneath the road, or alongside it? These could make a big difference to the structure of what you're trying to explain.
For instance:
'Roman baths that were once part of a 3rd Century villa were discovered during excavation for the A1(M) motorway. The layout of the baths, the cold, warm and hot rooms, and the under floor heating system have all been preserved in a steel vault underneath/alongside the motorway'.

"on the south"
'to the south'

I've done those changes (and stolen the footnote about new towns from the Stevenage entry!), but I think the section about the Roman baths is fine.

I say that
"Roman baths were excavated before the A1(M) was built and are preserved in a steel vault in an embankment along the A1(M)"

Which clearly says they were excavated before the AI(M) was there - which answers the question about was the existance known before the motorway was built, and embankments are something that support the road. So I'm assuming that the baths are underneath the motorway, as that's where the support would be needed, but as I said I haven't visited them yet, so I can't confirm that.

The correction that you offered makes at least part of the baths section wrong, sorry.

HAving just re-read that footnote, it doesn't fit. It says that New Towns were built after the blitz, but WGC was built before the second world war. Maybe it's not a 'New Town' after all? I'll have to look into that later. Right now I should be getting ready for work.

I've added the population. I've put it in as 97546, as that was the last census total, but should I simply say 'just under 100,000' because that seems a bit neater?

I'd just round it to 98,000 Mina.

Great, thanks, I've done that.

Unfortunately I can't visit the bath house because it's only open in school holidays, and as my son's Easter hols are at a different time to Herts it'll have to be the summer.

I did have a nice chat with a lady from the museum though - she's sending me a leaflet and gave me some information about the building of the A1(M) over the site, so I've added that.

Hopefully she'll put her name on the info she sends me (I forgot to ask her name! ) and then I can send her the URL when this hits the EG.

How did I miss that 'before'?

I didn't get a whole lot of sleep the previous night... and if you swallow that, you can nail soot to a wall

No problem - I thought I hadn't written it very clearly. It's all changed now after I've had a chat with the nice museum lady.

98000 needs a comma in it - 98,000 - to fit in with House Style

And you seem to have lost an 's' - "It was developed in the 1920 by" (no apostrophe necessary )

I've changed those two, and I've also changed the beginning, because it's not a New Town.

I tried to rearrange it to make sense, but I'm a bit knackered myself now, so it might not make sense anymore.

My brother used to work for Xerox in Welwyn GC - does the smell of the Shredded Wheat factory still dominate the place?

On the trains front, it's a terminus for the suburban services out of Moorgate (King's Cross at the weekend) but it's also the second stop after leaving London for the semi-fast services that go from King's Cross to places like Letchworth, Cambridge and Peterborough.

I'm saying that for two reasons - firstly, if you feel like going there by train, you'll be quicker not getting the one with Welwyn GC as its ultimate destination, and secondly, presumably it makes the place pretty popular with commuters?

Yes, the smell still sticks around, especially first thing.
Nice entry Mina

Add that bit about the trains.

I can't comment on the smell as I don't have a sense of smell so I never notice anything.

Ta. If Oberon can confirm it's still the same, could we put in the bit about the smell? It's the first thing that struck me when I went there, and the only thing I've really remembered about the place.

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