Hertfordshire Puddingstone

Following a request relating to an article published in 1953 in the Hertfordshire Countryside I have created a subject page relating to

Hertfordshire Puddingstone

If you have any information as to other places where it can be seen please let me know.

Library Downsizing - Books on Old Hertfordshire Buildings

See me on ebay

As part of my "downsizing" exercise I am getting rid of a series of books, produced circa 1980, listing buildings of special architectural or historical interest. Each volume covers a town or a number of parishes.

• East Herts: Albury, Brent Pelham, Furneaux Pelham and Stocking Pelham
• East Herts: Anstey, Buckland, Hormead, Meesden and Wyddial
• North Herts: Ashwell, Bygrave, Caldecot & Newnham, Clothall, Hinxworth, Radwell and Rushden & Wallington
• East Herts: Aspenden, Cottered and the Town of Buntingford
• District of Welwyn Hatfield: Ayot St Lawrence, Ayot St Peter, Essendon, Hatfield, Northaw & Cuffley, North Mymms and Welwyn
• North Herts: Baldock Area
• East Herts: Bayford, Brickenden Liberty and Little Amwell
• East Herts: Area of the former urban district of Bishops Stortford
• Borough of Broxbourne
• East Herts: Eastwick, Gilston, Hunsdon and Widford
• East Herts: High Wych, Little Hadham, Much Hadham and Thorley
• North Herts: Kings Walden, Langley, Preston and St Pauls Walden

In addition I am selling off a pile of 275 different Hertfordshire Countryside magazines.

November 2014 Activity - December Plans

The problem with November is that, having decided to cut back on the time I spent on the site (see End of October post) I obviously didn't cut back as there were more posts in November (28) than in any month so far this year! - And there are several more in the queue to appear shortly. Because the site was busy the number of page views, at 7000 in November, is satisfactory, and the number of visitors to the main site is on target to exceed 250,000 again this year.

Hertfordshire Countryside

As a result of too much time on the computer my plans for "downsizing my library" (a very large collection of research notes, correspondence, books, papers, post cards, etc.) have not progressed as far as they should - but I am currently  advertising an "archive" of 275 copies of the Hertfordshire Countryside magazines on ebay (No131364158116) at a starting price of 10p a copy (They typically sell at £1-2 each). If they sell they will clear a useful bit of space - and if they don't they will probably end up in the waste paper collection as I need the space. I may sell off some other Hertfordshire items (books, booklets, post cards, etc.) over the next few weeks.

Help Desk

So my plan for December is to not start any new research projects - and while there will be a number of posts they will be on subjects where I have already done the research - or will be quickies of one kind or another. The "Ask Chris" help desk will not be closed - but most December queries will join a queue to be considered for action in the New Year.

Anscombe - A Large Department Store in Harpenden

Harpenden

Even an old receipt such as this one can tell a story. It reminded me of a large department store near my home in the 1940s where the salesman put the sales slip (in this case for suspenders costing 1s 3d) in a tube with the customer's payment (in this case half a crown - or 2s 6d). The tube would be clipped to a wire and sent whirring overhead to the cash office - to return with the receipted bill and the change.

So there must have been a similar store in Harpenden - and I decided to investigate. Allen Anscombe (1824-1903) became a draper and milliner in Harpenden in 1855, possibly helped by his father-in-law, Thomas Ashby. In 1869 he moved to larger premises and the business grew substantially, but eventually closed in 1982, The story is given in Anscombe's Department Store, Harpenden, 1855-1982, with some pictures and advertisements.

In researching the store I was delighted to discover there had been an article, with photographs, about the "rapid wire" cash system in an article in the Hertfordshire Countryside, and there is a Cash Railway Website, dedicated to the system which has fascinated me as a child.

The research highlighted one of the limitations of the British Newspaper Archive at the present time. It is almost certain that such a large store would have regularly advertised in the local newspapers - so I might have expected to find many press references. However the archive has no newspapers covering the central area of the county - apart from the Herts Advertiser of 1925. This situation will improve as more papers are put on line - but it is a reminder that if you search the archive you need to check whether the archive contains local papers for the relevant years.

The End of Hertfordshire Countryside

The cover of the December 2012 issue of Hertfordshire Countryside is headed "The End of an Era"  and after 67 years and 644 issues the magazine has bitten the dust. 

The magazine started as a slim quarterly in 1946, and was quite clearly a magazine of Hertfordshire with an emphasis on historical interests, and a few adverts to help support it. It was popular and later switched to monthly publication. It was a major source of information of relating to the history and traditions of the county and there is a ready second hand market for early second hand copies.

 However by the 1980s it was becoming more of a life style magazine with a Hertfordshire flavour. While to the end it still contained a small number of articles of purely historical interest there were also articles which were clearly written to support the adverts for hotels, restaurants and private schools, and others. 

The end comes with the retirement of the publisher, and in his farewell editorial he "looks at some Countryside milestones at the end of an era."  For many of the loyal readers the era started  in 1946 but he effectively dismisses the important role the paper carried out in its early years by failing to mention anything of the magazine's achievements before he joined the magazine in 1984! Perhaps the real reason the magazine has died is because it lost its original feeling for the heritage of the county in today's over-commercialized environment.

Having said this the last issue contains several interesting articles. The Spirit of the Stort looks at the history of navigation on the River Stort. There is an attractively illustrated article of The Ayots and another Warm Hearts in Cold Christmas - about Cold Christmas Lane and the villages of Wadesmill and Thundridge. There is also a biography of Abe Mitchell, Verulam's Golf Pro, who I recently mentioned in this newsletter.

Hertfordshire Countryside - November 2012

The November Issue of Hertfordshire Countryside contained a number of articles of potential interest.. 

• The Time Machines looks at some mid-29th century buses that ran in the county.
• There are some interesting biographical notes on Ernest Squires (1878-1933), the local historian who was actively involved with the East Herts Archaeological Society.
• The New River describes the 17th century waterway that was built to carry fresh water from Hertford to London
• There is an article on Bushey with pictures of a number of interesting buildings.
• Keeping within the Boundaries looks at some of the county's old hedgerows, which often relate to parish or other boundaries.
• The tiny village of Nettleden gets a couple of pages.

The Hertfordshire Countryside Index and sales on ebay.

I have now decided I must slim down my library and sell off unneeded and duplicate items on ebay - which I am doing under the name chris_from_hertfordshire. I have also made a rule that I should not buy any more items to use on this site until I have raised enough money to pay for them!  I had this policy some years ago, and ended up with the large library which now provides significant information for this web site. In recent years I have done very little selling and too much buying and as a result I have been heavily subsidizing this site from my pension.

In addition to selling off surplus and duplicate books I will be trying to reduce a pile of duplicate copies of Hertfordshire Countryside. To sell a copy I will need to include some details of the contents list in the advert and its seems silly to waste the effort. Some years ago I started to index early issues so that you would know about the interesting articles they contained (and as I have copies you know you can ask me about the articles). I plan to add the contents lists of items I am selling online and as a result I have now added the contents lists of Summer 1951, Autumn 1952 and Summer 1963 - and more will be appearing as sales hopefully continue.

My current items for sale

Hertfordshire Countryside - April 2012

This month's issue of the Hertfordshire Countryside contained a number of items that I found interesting - but one major disappointment. The six page article on Knebworth There's a great choice at Knebworth - A special welcome to village shopping looked from the title as if it would be weighed down with advertising - but actually had a historically interesting text by Ann Judge. Attenborough's fields was an interesting piece by John Sear about an area of grassland habitat to the west of Bushey village - much in the tradition of articles in the early editions of the magazine.  The two pages of Life and Times of Easter Bunny by Ivan Broadhead included some interesting medieval references to rabbit warrens in the county while the three page Village of Antiquity by Peter Etteridge had some nice photographs of Pirton to support a reasonable historical text. Two reader's letters caught my eye - and there was a full page on the Great Bed of Ware at Ware Museum.

So perhaps this was the best issue so far this year. So why am I bitterly disappointed. The front cover said "Spotlight Harpenden 8 page special feature" and if I had brought the magazine because of this I would have been robbed.  There was a picture of a named pond, and another of an unidentified footpath (both provided by the town council - so could be seen as promotional), and there was a 150 word blurb ending "Harpenden is a great place for young and old". The remaining pages consist of a two page spread detailing a competition for a free meal in a Harpenden restaurant, a two page advertising feature on a firm of audiologists, a one page advertising feature on a firm of accountants, a one page estate agent's advert featuring houses over £1,000,000 each, and three smaller advertisements. Maybe there are some people who would buy the magazine because they needed a hearing air so that they could hear their accountant advice as to whether they could afford a meal out. However I suspect that the majority of people who purchased because of the words on the cover would have been bitterly disappointed and some might justifiably ask for their money back because of blatent misrepresentation under the Trades Description Act.

I know that such magazines need advertising to survive - but this is just not good enough. The magazine must include a reasonable amount of genuine information about the county if people are to read it. Boasting of special features which are only advertisements and editorial puff which is clearly anything but impartial will drive what used to be a great magazine out of business.

Hertfordshire Countryside - Old and New

Hertfordshire Countryside was first published in 1946 and early copies of  were packed with local history articles. While I have a complete set of the early years I don't have an index. However posting the contents list on this site makes it easier for everyone to find relevant articles, and I have just posted details of the four issues published in 1949. There are often copies of early editions on sale on ebay, and many Hertfordshire Public Libraries have bound copies.

The magazine is still being published monthly and the picture is of the latest (February 2012) issue. The current magazine contains less historical material than the early issues but you may find the following articles of interest:

• Bet Your Life - Ivan Broadhead looks at old wagers.
• The Bricket Wood Tragedy - Nicholas Connell looks at the murder of the girl from Cawdells, Watford.
• The Ghosts of Hertfordshire - Fanhams Hall - by Damien O'Dell
• Forging Ahead - Wendy Turner explores Much Hadham
• Essendon - Peter Etteridge visits 'The Hill with the ash trees'

Hertfordshire Counrtyside - October 2011 Issue

The Hertfordshire Countryside magazine has been going for over 60 years, and the early issues are packed with history. The modern version is better seen as a life style magazine, but each issue contains several articles (typically of 2 or 3 pages) of particular interest to people interested in Hertfordshire local history. The following articles in the October 2011 issue caught my eye:

Hemel Hempstead. A short history of the town, with modern picture of old buildings, including four surviving public houses.

Trigg's Coffin. The Reader's Letters section includes a historically interesting account of the contents of Trigg's Coffin, which is in the rafters of a barn in Stevenage.

Activity Centre. This article looks at the many different village halls in Hertfordshire, from the 500 year old town house to the very modern. It made me think about the fate of the many corrugated iron and wooden huts which were erected 100 years or more ago, both as temporary chapels and as community halls. Most have not survived, and I wonder if any of the survivors in Hertfordshire now have listed building status - or will all be lost. I know of plans to demolished  a former wooden World War One army hut, re-erected in the 1920's as a small church and now used as a community centre.

Hertfordshire Countryside - September Issue

Hertfordshire Countryside
September 2011

The Hertfordshire Countryside magazine has been going for over 60 years, and the early issues are packed with history. The modern version is better seen as a life style magazine, but each issue contains several articles (typically 2 or 3 pages) of particular interest to people interested in Hertfordshire local history. The following articles in the September 2011 issue caught my eye:

Is the Age of Eccentrics Over? Former Hertfordshire eccentrics include Edward Sturgess of Walkern, Henry Trigg of Stevenage and Piers Shonk of Brent Pelham.
Reminiscing the Ruins. The history and pictures of Sopwell Nunnery, St Albans.
A Reluctant Hero. Percy Childerley (1894-1970) wins the DCM in the First World War.
Datchworth. A village with an interesting history.
Hoddesdon's 1253 Charter Fair Returns.