The Leisure Centre, Park Road, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP1 1JS
A huge highlight of the event was the live auction following the A.G.M., to include fifty lots selected from the collection of Derek Jenkins, our President Emeritus. And the catalogue is still online at https://csgb.co.uk/news/csgb-postal-auction-2022-04-11
We did a bit of research, and discovered that though there were no cigarette or tobacco factories in Hemel Hempstead, during the Second World War Ardath relocated to Welwyn Garden City, about twenty five minutes drive away from where we are today. This was a relocation of necessity, as their Worship Street factory had been severely damaged during the war. They set up their new home in Broadwater Road, at the Associated British Pictures Corporation, and in the 1950s they enlarged it. However in 1960 the firm closed, and the workers were made redundant. The factory was taken over by Polycell who made wood fillers and adhesives, rather apt, when you consider that Ardath cards were sometimes "sticky backs"