Coal Posts in Hertfordshire

Coal Post at Wormley

Following the Coal Duties Act of 1851 coal posts were erected around London to indicate where tax became due, the tax helping to raise money for many of the bridges across the Thames. At least 44 were in Hertfordshire (but there may have been more). If you want to know more a good place to start is the excellent article "Hertfordshire's Coal Posts" on the Brookmans Park site. It addition to listing all known Hertfordshire posts it has articles, with photographs, on those at Potters Bar, Colney Heath, Hawkshead, Wormley, Northaw and Newgate Street.

Did your ancestor go to a private boarding school?

I have just had an question about the school that Paul's ancestor George FitzGeorge went to in 1851. He is uncertain about George's father and ideally he would like to find school records relating to his admission. Unfortunately the school was typical of the large number of preparatory boys boarding schools where there are no surviving school records. If you have a similar problem to Paul have a look at Rev. TUCK's School, Welwyn, Little Wymondley & Northaw, c1840-c1930 to see the factors I considered in trying to find more.

It is important to realize that it is likely that many of the pupils who went to the school went there because of personal recommendation - and might be relatives of the headmaster, or linked in some way to his family. For this reason I investigated the headmaster's family (including search online local newspapers) and also investigated a bit of the social background of the other pupils at the school in case there are any obvious contacts. The history of the school could also be relevant - as key documents may have been been kept when/if the school changed location or management. In this case the school may have been a continuation of an earlier boarding school  that was at Welwyn in 1839. In 1851/2 it moved from Welwyn to Little Wymondley. The school continued under a new schoolmaster and then moved to Northaw and the management changed again.Unfortunately the paper trail that school records might have followed goes cold in about 1935.