When Hatfield Technical College opened in 1952, it wasn’t long before students took part in attention-getting activities. These can be classified broadly as adventure, stunt and rag. Some of the adventures could be called stunts, but they had an objective. For example driving a lawn mower from Edinburgh to London could be called a pointless stunt, but it did have an objective in that it aimed to prove reliability. Driving an Isetta round and round Piccadilly Circus was really only a stunt, although the determined drivers may well disagree. The following list of activities, mostly aimed at raising money for charity, is bound to be incomplete!

1959 was a busy year with a Ransomes’ mower driven non-stop from Edinburgh to London, entries in the “most unusual means” category of the London-Paris air race, a record 19 students crammed into a standard telephone box and an Isetta three-wheeler driven endlessly around Piccadilly Circus. As early as April “The Oracle”, the Official Bulletin of the Hatfield Technical College Students’ Union, reported these triumphs – see page 2.

In 1961 a kart was driven from Lands End to John O’ Groats. An iron bedstead supported on oil drums and powered by outboard motors was sailed across the English Channel in 1966.

Students took part in university pram races between 1960 and 1963, at least.

The first Rag Day at Hatfield was about 1955. They continued through the 1960s and into the 1970s. For a time in the 1960s Rag Day concluded with a Rag Revue performed by a talented group of students.

“Sixty Years of Innovation”, the history of the University of Hertfordshire published in 2012, has a section on this aspect of student life. Among the events recorded in “Sixty Years”, but for which there is no other information, are in 1966 a world model car racing record set by completing 10,000 laps in 48 hours on a special circuit set up in the Co-op Store in White Lion Square, Hatfield and in 1971 a tea-trolley race from Hatfield to Blackpool, also the model DH88 Comet was ‘kidnapped’ from the pole at the Comet Hotel and a ransom of £50 was extracted from the hotel manager.

Enterprising Activities sets out to record some of these events, using whatever sources have come to hand.

There must be many more accounts and photographs lurking in members' personal archives (aka 'that box in the loft or attic'). If you come across any, do Contact Us.