Stortford Remembrance Sunday: 8 Nov, roads shut 10.30am

Bishop’s Stortford’s Remembrance Sunday service is at 10.50am on Sunday 8 November 2026, at the war memorial in Castle Gardens. The town council runs it with the Royal British Legion’s Bishop’s Stortford branch, and everyone is invited to place tributes afterwards (Bishop’s Stortford Town Council).

Armistice Day is Wednesday 11 November at 11am, also at the war memorial, for a two-minute silence and tributes.

The parade

Servicemen, veterans and uniformed organisations are asked to assemble at 10am at the Link Road car park, CM23 2BA. The parade departs at 10.40am and marches to the memorial, arriving before the service starts.

The council’s own website gives a second, different version of this. Its events overview page says the main parade “takes place on Remembrance Sunday, starting at 10.30am at The Causeway”, which is neither the time nor the place given on the Remembrance page itself. The Remembrance page is the detailed one and carries the contact address for the event, so that is the one to work from: 10am at Link Road, moving off at 10.40am. If you are marching, ring 01279 715000 or email remembrance@bishopsstortfordtc.gov.uk to be sure.

Roads and car parks: two hours with no way out

This is the part that catches people who are not going to the service at all.

A road closure is in force from 10.30am to 12.30pm. The council says ingress and egress will be impossible at three car parks in that window:

• Link Road, CM23 2BA
• Jackson Square, CM23 3XQ
• Waitrose, CM23 2BA

If your car is in one of those at 10.30am, it stays there until half past twelve. The council recommends Northgate End instead, both for shoppers and for people attending. Northgate End is a Sunday rate day, so all-day parking is £1.70, and the other council car parks are a flat £2.10. Our parking in Bishop’s Stortford page has the rest.

The closure order, and why the one on the council’s page is out of date

The document attached to the council’s Remembrance page is last year’s traffic order, not this year’s. It is headed “The Hertfordshire (Temporary Closing of A1250 (Link Road/The Causeway), Bishops Stortford during the ‘Bishops Stortford Remembrance Day Parade’) Order 2025”, it is signed by Hertfordshire County Council’s principal lawyer Jaspreet Lyall and dated 2 October 2025, and it comes into operation “between the hours of 10.30am and 12.30pm on Sunday 9 November 2025”. That was Remembrance Sunday last year.

The 2026 order has not been published. Going by last year’s, it should appear in early October.

What last year’s order closed is almost certainly what this year’s will close, so it is worth reading. It bans all vehicles from the length of A1250 Link Road and The Causeway running from a point 72 metres east of the Hadham Road and Northgate End roundabout round to the A1059 Dane Street roundabout, roughly 490 metres. The signed diversion runs via A1250 Link Road and Hadham Road, A1184 Bishops Park Way and St James Way, B1383 Thorley Street and London Road, A1060 London Road and A1250 Hockerill Street. Emergency vehicles are exempt.

Anything else shut that weekend will be on our roadworks and travel page.

Getting into Castle Gardens

The main entrance to the war memorial, opposite Jackson Square, is kept clear for the parade to come through. The council asks the public to use one of three other ways in:

• Past the Terrace Park Café and Markwell Studio, from the Causeway
• The Splash Pool entrance, also from the Causeway
• The new bridge from Sworders Field

Who to contact

The town council’s events team is on 01279 715000, or remembrance@bishopsstortfordtc.gov.uk. The Royal British Legion’s Bishop’s Stortford branch is at 22a Apton Road, CM23 3SN; its branch secretary, Terrie Archer, can be reached on 07804 778036.

Details on this page were checked against the town council’s published information on 4 September 2026. We will update it when the 2026 traffic order is issued.