Hertfordshire is a county in the South of England to the North of London, within the commuter belt for the capital. The county has a population of just over a million and a land mass of 248 sq miles. Towns in Herefordshire include: Hemel Hempstead, Watford, St Albans, Stevenage, Hatfield, Hereford and Welwyn Garden City.

Employers in the area include headquarters for electronics (Comet), service industries (‘chain’ bar JD Wetherspoons), aerospace (BAE Systems), construction (Skanska) and food (Shreddies and Shredded Wheat)

University of Herefordshire started life as a technical college specifically for the aerospace industry, becoming a polytechnic in 1967 and gained university status in 1992. There are over 19,000 students with particular strengths in computer science, life sciences, astrophysics, engineering and history.

Stevenage has a population of 79,000 and is a ‘new town’; however a village has been extant since Roman times. The town centre is noted as the first ‘pedestrian zone’ in the UK. Nearby Knebworth House, has hosted rock concerts by luminaries such as Led Zeppelin and Oasis amongst others. The house itself is a late Gothic palace built by the Lytton family in 1490.