Brief news from the current week

Passenger Lists: Further to my posting on Coopers of Berkhamsted - Links with South Africa, which found the outgoing passenger lists on FindMyPast very useful,  I note that Ancestry has incoming passenger lists - but have not followed this up.

Coal for St Albans Railway Station:  It is easy to forget in these days of electric railways that 100 years ago everything ran on coal - as these two tickets recording the delivery of coal to the Midland Railway's locomotive Department at St Albans show.


William Kay of Tring Park: Sandra adds a follow-up to the posting from 2010 and I note that press reports at the time gives two additional addresses at the time of his death of possible relevance (See British Newspaper Archives):

Sept. 15 [1838], at his home in York-terrace, Regent's Park [London], William Kay, Esq., of the Mains, Cumberland, and Tring-park, Hertfordshire, in his 62nd year.

CDV by Leménager: Henri Victor Leménager was a photographer in Bushey & Watford between 1861 and 1887. I have just added to his page an additional carte de visite (large image available) showing a mother and two sons (unfortunately unidentified) on yet another card base. I am still looking for datable copies of his pictures so I can associate the different card bases with an approximate dates.


Hertfordshire Countryside: The July Issue includes several items which might interest the family historian. (Links are to relevant pages on this site.)

• Village Church saved reports on restoration work to the church of St Mary, Great Wymondley
• In the Air, On the Road, On Rail considers travel around the county in the 1930s.
• Essendon Pubs - a readers letter includes photographs of the Salisbury Crest Hotel, The Chequers (formerly the Candlestick) and The Wheatsheaf.
• Swans over Waltham includes references to swans in Hertfordshire.
• An Old Trade Route reminds us that the River Stort was once an important transport route.
• A Jewel of a Garden is about the historic gardens at Ashridge.dland Railway's locomotive Department at St Albans show. 

Donations: Further donations received this week mean that so far this year I have raised £485 for the mentally ill in Hertfordshire.