The Park Street and Frogmore Society (PSFS) was formed in 1995 to promote interest in local history and nature including conservation.

The Society organises open meetings for members and the general public, each of which includes a presentation from an invited speaker on a topic usually of a historical or nature interest. The meetings are held at Downs Hall, Park Street Village Hall, off the A5183, Park Street, St Albans, Herts. AL2 2PX. Start time is 7.45pm unless otherwise stated. Admission is £1 per person for members and £3 per person for non members

Limited parking is available outside the hall.

Members are kept informed by regular Newsletters and Journals and posters advertising talks are put on the Parish notice boards.

The society archive includes historical documents and items, books, records, images, maps and ephemera together with recorded memories of residents past and present. Help can be given to those researching local and family history and the Society encourages the sharing of memories, photos and items of local interest.

For further information or if you have anything that you would like to donate to our archive, please contact: Jacqui Banfield-Taylor
Email: 

For membership enquiries please contact: Bruce Banfield-Taylor
Email: 

Or download and fill in the membership form

Scheduled Events

 Park Street and Frogmore Society

All meetings take place at 7.45pm at Park Street Village Hall, Park Street, St Albans AL2 2PX.

Admission is £1 per person for members and £3 per person for non members. No need to pre-book unless notified, just turn upon the evening and pay at the door.

Contact Jacqui for further details. Email

2026 Season.

Tuesday 19th May: Land Girls, Brocket Babies and Beyond: Hertfordshire’s Home Front in WW11. Sarah Kerrison.

Discover the many ways in which Hertfordshire people gave their support to life on the Home Front during World War 11. Plus Hertfordshire’s role in feeding the nation, how secret experimental bombing trials in Garston led to the Dambuster raids and how corset makers helped crack the Enigma code! The PSFS AGM will follow the talk for members only.

Tuesday 18th August: Baths in Roman Britain, Kris Lockyear

Bathing has bee describes as ‘the Roman occupation’. There are hundreds of Roman bath houses known from Roman Britain. Who used the baths? What role did they play in Roman society? How did they work? What were the different types of baths? This talk will attempt to answer some of these questions and more mainly using examples from Roman Britain.

Tuesday 17th November: Folk Tales of Hertfordshire. Nick Blatchley

A look at the country’s often ignored folk tales, such as Jack O’Legs, the Blind Fiddler of Anstey and the Dragon of Brent Pelham. The talk combines story telling with historical and folklore information to put the stories in context. There will be an interval for our traditional mince pies and mulled wine. (Alternatives available)

The River Ver, a Meander Through Time.

A large colour, hardback book on our local chalk stream. Dedicated to her late father, Ted Banfield, a founder member of the Ver Valley Society, this first major and comprehensive work on the River Ver reveals a fascinating story from source to confluence and prehistory to the twenty-first century of a chalk stream that has shaped not only the local landscape but the lives of people past and present.

With a forward by the renowned television presenter and wildlife photographer Chris Packham, the book tells of the Ver’s long, interesting and chequered history, including archaeology and geology, milling and watercress growing, problems with abstraction along with rainfall and aquifer records, abstraction and flow charts and comprehensive records and details of a selection of local flora and fauna.

There are wonderful personal memories and experiences sprinkled throughout the book of people who have lived, worked and played on or near the river, helping to bring the past to us here in the present, all complemented with over 350 illustrations, many never seen before in public and some going back more than 250 years.

This beautifully written and illustrated book hopes to encourage readers to take an interest in exploring and caring for this superlative resource and its surroundings and help to give the River Ver its rightful importance now and for future generations.

Signed copies are available from the author for £24.99 and can be delivered free locally (within 10 miles of St Albans).

Please email