Heath Farm Sandridge, the Aldenham Harriers, and hunting in general.

Huntsman of the Aldenham Harriers,  Harry Finch Reynolds, at Heath Farm

Sandridge

Hunting

In looking though some old family pictures  I found two cards, each with 6 photographs, showing the meet of the Aldenham Harriers at the Heath Farm, Bernards Heath, in March 1911. The hunt was reported in the Herts Advertiser, and the account reprinted in the book Hare and Hounds - which tell the history of the Aldenham Harriers. However the book has few pictures of this hunt as early as this - and it shows someone who is almost certainly the Master of the Hounds at the time, Mr Birkbeck Ravenscroft, and the Huntsman, my grandfather Harry Finch Reynolds. Several other people are identified, or possibly identifiable. I have therefore added some of the pictures to the Hare and Hounds page.

The Aldenham Harriers assemble at Heath Farm

Bernards Heath

The meet was at Heath Farm, Bernards Heath, which was farmed by my Great Grandfather, Jacob Reynolds, with the hunt assembling on the Home Meadow. There are a number of surviving pictures of Heath Farm house, but few of the extensive buildings.  Several of the pictures record the buildings, and the row of lime trees said to have been planted by Jacob Reynolds, in the background to the hunt activities. I have therefore created a page Heath Farm in 1911 to record the appearance of the farm from the Sandridge Road side.

The Entrance to the Farm Yard at Heath Farm

At the same time as inputting these photographs I took the opportunity to set up a page to cover hunting activities on this web site. An introductory text will follow but the relevant pages already online are:

The History of Hunting in Hertfordshire (Articles in the Hertfordshire Countryside)

Hertfordshire Hunting Notes (Newspaper account of hunt with Hertfordshire Hounds in 1885)

The Bever Pack of Harriers in 1890 (Newspaper account, master Jacob Reynolds of Heath Farm)

The Old Berkley Hunt at Shendish in 1890 (short newspaper cutting)

Aldenham Harriers (The book Hare & Hounds plus many pictures of 1911 meet)

The Puckeridge Foxhounds (Article in Hertfordshire Countryside)

Lays of the  Hertfordshire Hunt (Book of poetry by George Robins, 1912)

The Hertfordshire Hunt (Booklet by William Scarth-Dixon, 1933)

The Staghounds at Cuckman's in 1889 (Newspaper article)

Hunting Hares (Roman pottery)