Fabian has been a boater for around forty years, and taking increasing interest in the heritage of the canal system and its historic boats for thirty. Moving to Hertfordshire in 1999 gave him the chance to combine that interest with the local history of the west side of the county, but it was only retirement that allowed him to study both formally at the University of Hertfordshire as an MA by Research, which he finished in 2016.

His dissertation has now become the book Passing Through, published a year ago, which looks at the economic and social effects of the Grand Junction Canal in its first fifty years to 1841. In it, Fabian starts by setting the national scene for the coming of the canal, and then looks at what sort of place west Hertfordshire was in the early 1790s. He goes on to discuss how it changed under the influence of the canal, and what had happened in the decades before the railway started to exert economic pressure on the canal from about 1840.

His talk will take us through how all this happened and suggest some reasons for the outcome.

Details on how to connect will be sent a few days before the event.