What is Hemel Hempstead?
[[File:Hemel Hempstead, High Street.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The Hight Street in the old town part of Hemel Hempstead]] '''Hemel Hempstead''' is a [[town]] in [[England]]. It is 25 miles north-west of [[London]]. The town is off the [[M1 motorway]], 20 minutes drive from [[Luton Airport]] and 40 minutes from London itself. [[File:Hemel Hempstead Station.jpg|thumb]] == History == The town began as an [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo Saxon]] [[village]] where two [[river]] [[valley]]s met in the [[Chiltern Hills]]. The local area grew very good [[grain]]. By [[Tudor period|Tudor]] times, the village became a [[market]] where grain and [[straw]] were sold. The town also had many [[Watermill|water mill]]s to grind the grain. Local people also earned [[money]] by [[plaiting]] the straw to be made into [[hat]]s. From about 1800, the town changed as the [[Industrial revolution]] took place. It is on the shortest route between London and the [[Birmingham]]. As trade between these two [[city|cities]] increased, a [[canal]] and a [[railway]] were built that passed very close to the town. Some of its water mills were changed from grinding grain to places where [[paper]] was made by [[machine]]. Some of these grew into giant paper making [[factory|factories]]. After the [[Second World War]], the [[government]] in London wanted to build many new [[home]]s for people who had had their homes destroyed by [[bomb]]s in the [[war]]. It decided to build some new towns where houses could be built in an very good [[environment]]. Hemel Hempstead was chosen to be one of these towns. Many new [[district]]s were built during the [[1950s]] and [[1960s]] all around the old town of Hemel Hempstead. It grew into a middle size town of over 80,000 people. Many new industries came to the town helped by money from the government and because it is where important motorways cross each other. Hemel Hempstead became world famous for a brief time in [[2005]] when an [[oil]] depot in the town at Buncefield [[explosion|exploded]]. It caused a big [[toxic]] [[s