History of Grand Junction Canal and its impact on local communities

UH Press has launched the latest book from its Hertfordshire Publications imprint. Fabian Hiscock's Passing Through: The Grand Junction Canal in West Hertfordshire, 1791–1841 considers the economic impact of the vital transport innovation that linked London and Birmingham at the end of the eighteenth century and asks whether or not the changes that were promised to local communities in Hertfordshire ever materialised. Did the canal benefit trade between the two major cities only, or were there benefits to be reaped locally?

In combining canal history with a detailed social and economic study of a part of the county that is not much written about, Fabian Hiscock has written a superbly researched and wide-reaching book that will be of interest to a broad range of readers.