The RFA attend a Church Parade at Abbots Langley

This photograph (recovered from a very faded state) shows soldiers standing in line in the main street at Abbots Langley. The photo was taken by someone called Calvert and most of his pictures have faded badly over the years. Does anyone know who he was?

More Information

Growing food at Abbots Langley School in the First World War

Working in the Garden at Abbots Langley School

Spring clean and upgraded pictures for Abbots Langley

See larger post card images of Abbots Langley

One of my top off-line priorities is to get my paper & digital library of books, post cards, etc., related to Hertfordshire better organised - and I have just started on the post card collection - starting with Abbots Langley. As a result I have added some new images and more than 20 images (those with blue edges) expand to 1024 pixel wide size on clicking. This will allow you to include higher resolution pictures in your family histories - but please remember to include a reference to the "Genealogy on Hertfordshire" site. I have also used the opportunity to spring clean the many pages involved, including correcting some broken links to external sites.

EVERYONE NOTE: Going steady through Hertfordshire village by village starting at "A" will take well over a year so if you would  like me to like me to upgrade the village where your ancestor lived let me know by means of a comment below and I will do it out of alphabetical order. This will mean I give priority to places which people are currently interested in. (Requests for towns may take a little longer ...)

Charles Dickens, Bleak House and Abbots Hill, Abbots Langley

Abbots Langley

Abbot's Hill, Abbot's Langley

The Dacorum Heritage Trust Winter 2014 Newsletter has an interesting article suggesting that John Dickinson, of Abbots Hill, and Charles Dickens had an important mutual acquaintance in Sir Edward Bulmer-Lytton, of Knebworth House. It also brings together other evidence - and in particular a BBC interview Could this be the setting of Dickins' Bleak House? reveals some very relevant facts. So will this end the arguments over which house in Hertfordshire, supposedly near St Albans, was the model for the house described in the novel Bleak House?

Brief Notes on Other Activities in September

Fewer posts upfront last month - but over 6,400 page views on the Newsletter and while the number of visitors to the main site is less than in September 2013, the number of pages views was higher. I was involved in a lot of activity in the background (see below), including some computer problems with upgrade to Windows 8.1 and entertaining our Australian visitor - with visits to Bletchley Park and the British Schools Museum.

Karaktus. I have acquired another card in this distinctive series by an unknown St Albans artist but half a dozen of the series still escape me.

Ben Tomlin discovered the page on the photographer Samuel Glendenning Payne, and we discover we share Rolls family ancestors, starting from William Rolls (1726-1798) and Mary Devonshire (1729-1804) of Bicester, Oxfordshire.

I have added an attractive post card of the Old Red Lion public house, High Street, Bushey, from about 1910 by a Watford stationer, Jackson & Co.

I have had several queries recently where people have asked for help who appear to have never read a general guide on family history, have never brought a birth, marriage or death certificate to check details, and have limited their activities to the indexes on one or two web sites. As a result they had made a very elementary mistake of assuming that is a name and date are approximately right it MUST BE MY ANCESTOR!!!! Perhaps I should insist that everyone should look at Right Name, Wrong Body" before asking me a question.

I have added a post card from about 1910 showing two thatched cottages in Widford.

I have added information about Grove School, Watford, in  1932

Gatward Clock

I have added a note about the 250 years booklet about Gatward, Jeweller, of Hitchin.

John has written that he has some post cards written to Mary Burrage of Abbots Langley and asks if anyone is interested.

I have updated the link to FreeBMD (no longer part of Rootsweb) and also the link to the Football Club History Database on the Apsley Football page.

To see what happened I have pinned a picture of the Apsley Football team on Historypin. As the picture has Apsley parish church in the background the location can be identified to be in one corner of the car park attached to Sainsbury's supermarket. As expected Historypin insisted in moving the pin from the correct position onto the London Road - demonstrating that the package is unsuitable for accurately recording historical data on a map.

There have been some additional replies and retweets on @HertsGenealogy

I have had several requests for high resolution images, which have been supplied and I have sent about half a dozen other emails on minor points ...

What's in a Placename - Breakspear or Popyes Farm?

Help Desk

Linda discovered her Edmonds/Edmends ancestors lived at "Popyes Farm," Bedmond, Abbots Langley, at the time of the 1841 census and noted that the name had apparently changed to "Breakspear Farm" in the 1851 census - and wondered how she might check on the change of name. I replied:

Breakspear Farm

The fact that the farm is described in 1841 as "The Popyes Farm" doesn't mean that it wasn't also known at Breakspear Farm. Imagine a stranger visiting Bedmond at almost any time pointing to the farm and they might be told "The Pope's Farm" or "Breakspear Farm" almost at random. The stranger who knew nothing of the farm's history would find the first farm name more informative.

In 1851 it may have been described in the census as "Breakspear Farm" but it could just as well have been called "The Pope's Farm" (Pope is easier to spell than Breakspear), "Mead Farm" (because the Mead family lived there) or "Edmonds Farm" (because the Edmond family used to live there).

In legal documents it might simply be identified by the name of the owner and/occupier - perhaps with the names of the people who owner/occupied adjuact plots. For instance in Land Tax records (available at HALS) there may be no farm name given, but it might be possible to identify it by the acreage!

 Of course place names do change - but in documents such as the early census returns the address given may simple the way the census enumerator decided to record it. For instance in towns you may find a reference to "Jones Yard" in one census - if you look at the other nearby census returns you may find that at vthe entrance to the yard was a shop occupied by "Mr Jones".

Troops in Abbots Langley area - London Scottish casualty identified

Military

One of the reasons I have a lot of photographs of WW1 troops on my web site is so that they can be remembered 100 years later. This photograph, one of a number on my "London Scottish" page, had been provisionally been dated to August/September 1914.

I have just had the following letter from Andrew Waterston, who writes: The young man in the coveralls sitting on the bucket at the front of your picture is my Great Uncle, 1847 Pte George Alexander Waterston.  He joined the London Scottish in 1913 and was posted to G Company.  He had grown up around army horses as his father had been awarded the DCM serving in the Royal Horse Guards and had gone on to run the canteen above Horse Guards in Whitehall, so the coveralls suggest he may have been employed looking after the officers' chargers - or he may have just been a messy eater!

Yours is the last photograph we have of him. He transferred to D Company and was killed less than 3 months later on the night of 31st October 1914 in the attack on the burning Windmill at Messines.  He was 20 years old.  His elder brother, Will was killed at Festubert in May 1915, unaware that his younger brother was already dead.

The London Scottish were the first territorial battalion, from those who trained in Hertfordshire, to see action. Some senior officers in the 2nd London Division felt that they had insufficient training and after the high casualties on 31st October (undoubtedly involving other as yet unidentified soldiers in the picture) most of the other battalions did not go to France until March 1915.

Many people in Hertfordshire are researching Hertfordshire men who fought and died in the war. Let us not forget the many others who came to Hertfordshire to train or to recover from their wounds. Any postcards (as digital images) and other information about these "forgotten" heroes would be welcome - as every extra clue could help identify both the military units and individual soldiers.

Improved Pictures of Hunton Bridge (Abbots Langley)

Langleybury School, Hunton Bridge, circa 1905

Churches

Abbots Langley

I have reorganized the pages for Hunton Bridge (which includes Langleybury) and rescanned all the old postcards images so that they are now available at a higher resolution. This includes pictures of St Paul's Church, Langleybury, the War Memorial (as it was in the 1920s), and the Hunton Bridge Village School.

War Memorials

The War Memorial at Hunton Bridge

The Former Telescope at Abbots Hill. Abbots Langley

Abbots Langley

Help Desk

Most of the questions I get are about people, and nearly all the rest are about places - but some of the most interesting are about the provenance of objects such as  the Boxmoor watches and the mirror from Stocks. Now Bob has written from Australia to say he has a telescope that had been owned by the early Victorian astronomer, the Rev. William Rutter Dawes. John Dickinson - of paper-making fame - owned a similar telescope at his home, Abbots Hill, in Abbots Langley.

Was it the same one? The clue is that Dawes telescope was sold to "A gentleman, a friend of Admiral Smythe" in 1859.  So could John Dickinson have been a friend of the Admiral? I suggest one or two possible sources (Click here for more information) but if you can suggest somewhere else to look please let me or Bob know.

Hit a Brick Wall? Looking for a way round

Help Desk

Shenley

Coreen has been researching her ancestor Walter Hewitt - who was born in about 1774 and had a number of children baptised at Shenley between 1804 and 1809. She can't find any record of his birth and has checked the obvious sources at HALS and he may have been the Walter mentioned in a removal in 1782. 

Unfortunately there are no surviving birth/baptism records for many people born before civil registration, especially when there are no census returns to suggest a place of birth. My analysis in HEWITT, Shenley Area, 1780-1851 does not come up with an immediate answer - but illustrates the kinds of questions one should be asking when you are trying to work your way round this kind of problem. 

Was the Lucy Hewitt who married in Hatfield in 1802 his sister and did she survive until the 1851 census?

Could the Mary Marston who witnessed his wedding at Abbots Langley in 1798 be his mother - now married?

And was the other witness, James Smith, a relative?

Was the 6 year old Sarah Yeoman at South Mimms in the 1841 census his granddaughter?

And if so did he have a daughter, Elizabeth, born in London Colney in about 1803?

Reuben Randall Links between Watford and British Collombia, Canada

Watford

In 2005 Marina wrote from British Colombia to ask about the Potten family of Watford. She has now discover that a postcard of Abbots Langley was sent to Canada and relates to her Randall ancestors. We have exchanged emails and she records that when Reuben joined the army in 1916, and went to France, his wife and young son came to Watford and stayed with relatives. Full details and family portraits online.

Marina's collection of family memorabilia included four view snapshots. One is Lock No 78 on the Grand Junction Canal, in Cassiobury Park, Watford. Another is a well-known view of the Thames with Windsor Castle in the distance. But can you identify the other two, shown here? One is clearly the canal, but where? The other is an interesting looking old public house.

Can You Help?

In addition the post card refers to someone with the unlikely name of Offa. So far we haven't found the link between the Potten or Ransall families and Offa Hawes - Perhaps they were just good friends.

The "Watford Loco" Football Club, 1904-5

Football

Watford Loco

I keep on finding early post cards of "unknown" football teams - in the hope that some of you might be able to add names to the faces. This one appeared on ebay, team unknown, but posted at Abbot Langley. In fact I have identified the team as the Watford Loco Football Club - for full details of what I found see Watford Loco Football Club 1904-05

If you can add information on the club - and the footballers in the picture, let me know.

A Century ago at Hunton Bridge

The Village, Hunton Bridge, Abbots Langley The card was published by George Roberts who was a baker and who ran the Post Office.
	There is a higher resolution image of this card on the Hunton Bridge page. Larger images of other cards can be made available. Please ask.

The Cave Family of Abbots Langley

Last year I posted a picture, and some background, on Arthur William Cave, a fishmonger of Abbots Langley. A relative, Janet, has supplied  some detailed information on the family and and number of photographs, which have been appended to the original page.

These include a picture and information of the young Herbert Bushby Cave, 1896-1916, who died on the Somme. 

There is also information on the Dolamore of Abbots Langley and Leavesden.

The Birthplace of Pope Adrian IV, at Bedmond

Breakspear's Farm, Bedmond, Abbots Langley
Birthplace of Pope Adrian IV

Even this faded card can tell a story

This sad looking card was recently advertised on ebay, and I decided it required a makeover.  So I brought it and subjected it to the Corel Paint Shop treatment. 

A tweak here and a zap there and the image was transformed - as you can see below the fold.

Abbots Langley Church in 1815

I have added an early picture of Abbots Langley parish church. It comes from the Antiquarian Itinerary, which was published by James Stoorer, this print dating from 1815.

A new School Photo by Buchanan circa 1914

Rose Garden, Abbot's Hill

Percy Buchanan specialised in post cards of schools and many of his cards are numbered. I am therefore collecting numbered cards of Hertfordshire schools to try and build up a date line to allow his post cards to be dated more accurately. This card, of the Rose Garden, Abbots Hill Schoo;, Abbots Langley, carried the Number 29,674 and was printed in Belgium - presumably in 1914 or earlier.. This suggests that cards with a number below 30,000 are all prior to the First World War.

After the Fire, Hazelwood House, Abbots Langley

Hazelwood House, Abbots Langley, burned down in 1908

Photograph by Downer of Watford