Armed Forces Day returns to Gadebridge Park

Gadebridge Park hosted Dacorum’s Armed Forces Day events on 27 June, with the mix of military vehicles, stalls and children’s activities that has become the borough’s public way of marking the weekend.

Hemel’s New Town was built with a large military aftertaste: Bovingdon airfield to the south-west, RAF Halton over the county line, and generations of families who settled here after service. The park event is one of the few days when that history is visible without a museum ticket.

It is also a test of Gadebridge itself: can the park absorb a crowd, keep the river edge safe, and still feel like a local park on the Sunday morning after? This year it did. That should not be assumed as the events diary fills.