Update of Pictures on Westmill (near Buntingford)

Following a query about this small village I have now added two new post card images showing the village of Westmill n the early part of the 20th century. In addition all post card images expand to 1024 pixels wide (or high) if you click on the small image on the village page.

Update on Ayot St Peter history and pictures

I recently discovered that there is an new site for the parish of Ayot St Peter which includes a number of interesting local history pages, which are planned to expand with time.

I have used the event to celebrate by upgrading my own Ayot Green and St Peter page, and introducing a new page for the church. As a result all the old postcard views (1 dozen of them - 2 of which are new to my site)  now expand to a 1024 pixel wide (or high) image if clicked. 

This is part of my plans in preparing the whole site for archive and if you are interested in any Hertfordshire village (or part of a town) and would like me to add large images from my own computer (but which I have not yet made available online) please let me know and I will give your suggested village priority in what is a long queue of potential upgrades.

In addition any corrections, new or updated links to other village, town, or society sites will be help me ensure that the final archive is of maximum value.

New and bigger post card views of High Cross and Colliers End

Multiview post card of High Cross

When this site is mothballed it will still be available online, but higher resolution images will no longer be supplied on request. Anticipating this change all post card images for High Cross (11) and Colliers End (6) now give a 1024 pixel wide image on clicking. Two new view cards have been added.

Links to:   High Cross     Colliers End

I have also added a lengthy press account of the dedication of St Mary's, Colliers End.

Colliers End

Upgrading Pictures of Little Gaddesden

The Rectory, Little Gaddesden

I have upgraded the Little Gaddesden pages so that now you get a larger image if you click on any of the early 20th century post card images.

I have also added new pictures of The Rectory

Early Post Card images of Old Hertfordshire

The Congregational Church. Barley, circa 1950
Now a private house

Quite a lot of my recent requests for information are for larger images of some of the early prints and post cards - the last being a view of Barley for a poster for a Harvest Supper to be help at Barley Parish Church on 30th September. As a result it might be appropriate to explain the current position relating to images on the site.

1. There is no fee for using this web site but if you use material from the site please consider making a donation to support the mentally ill in Hertfordshire.
2. You are free use any pictures of old post cards and prints shown on this web site where I own an original copy (This includes all post card images where there is no reference to a source book, etc.)
3. If the picture has a blue border clicking on the image will produce a larger image - typically 1024 pixels wide. In preparation for archiving this web site the number of such images is being increased - so that it can continue to be used as a picture library with several thousand images of the county over 100 years ago..
4. Larger images may be available - contact me if you are interested.

Wagon & Horse Pub  - possibly 1920
Now renamed the Fox & Hounds

Because of the size of the site it will take several years to upgrade all the post card images, and priority will be given to villages or selected aspects of the larger towns if people contact me. Because the last request was about Barley I have added three new post cards - and upgraded over a dozen existing views with 1024 pixel wide images.

St Margaret's House (former Rectory), Barley

New and higher resolution early post card images of Aldenham

The Gates of Aldenham House

As part of the policy to prepare the Genealogy in Hertfordshire web site for archiving I have added some new post card images of 

Aldenham 

and some of the big houses in the area. In most cases I have also added larger images (when you see when click on the original picture)

St John the Baptist - Aldenham

Who was "F S" and did he work in St Albans with "Karaktus"?

Sometimes when you are doing research you get carried away with a side issue - and my recent investigation into the identity of a post card artist signing himself  "F S" is a good example.

Card by Karaktus

Some years ago I discovered some unusual comic cards published around 1908  by the short-lived Crown Publishing Company of St Albans and drawn by "Karaktus." As a result I have so far identified almost all his designs (I have details and in most cases copies, of 28 out of 30 different cards) However I made no progress in discovering the identity of "Karaktus."

Card by "F S"

In my research I discovered that the Crown Publishing Company also produced cards in the "Crown Series" some of which were signed "F S" and it seemed likely "F S" and "Karaktus" knew each other (unless they  were the same artist using two different pen names,) Perhaps, I thought that if I could identify "F S" (who I now realized has some links with the St Albans company) it would lead me to "Karaktus".

"FS" card from USA

My first online searches showed that the majority of post card sellers made no attempt to identity "F S," while those who did came up with either "F Stone" (who signed a small number of cards published in about 1906) or "Fred Spurgin." (a very well known post card artist whose cards started to appear in about 1910, including many produced in the First World War). However the work of these two artists were stylistically quite different to that of "F S."  In addition "F S" cards involved many different named publishers (or none), and were not always signed - although in some cases the same card was issued, with  or without signature, by a different publisher. In many cases the cards were not used (so no postal date), and often the publisher information on the back was not immediately available.

What was going on? I started a comprehensive search over a number of months and have now identified well over 100 different images - and I am still no wiser as to who he is - except that based on style of artwork and subject treatment I think "F S" is unlikely to be "Fred Spurgin".

Unsigned card probably by "F S"

What I guess happened is the "F S" was a freelance artist, who started to produce comic postcards for the London View Company in 1906 - shortly before the company closed down. Following the closure of LVC he was probably involved in setting up the short lived Crown Publishing Company in St Albans in 1908-9. By about 1910 some of his cards were being published in the USA and the same images also turned up in the UK at about the same time - often with no publisher name..

For more Information see

Comparison of "F S" images with other artists

A summary of "F S" post cards. (link from above)

Unsigned - by F S ?

If you have any information which would help me identify "F S" or "Karaktus" or the subjects, publishers and earliest postal dates of their cards I will be grateful. If there is sufficient interest when I have time I will add a catalogue of card series, individual card titles, publishers and dates, for the benefit of other collectors.

Note on images: Many of the images come directly from the web (particularly auction sites) and I have deliberately reduced the image size to thumbs 250 pixels wide. (If I already own a copy clicking a blue edged image will give a much larger image). For cards currently on sale you could start by searching ebay collectibles using:

postcard ("F S", "F Stone", "Fred Stone") (comic, artist, social) 

At the time of posting this search identified 22 "F S" cards with a typical price of about £4.00

Update (with new pictures) of the Anstey page

As part of my new policy of catching up with the backlog of material waiting to go onto the main web site I have added new post card images to the Anstey page and there is a new page for information on St George, Anstey. In each case a larger image is available by clicking on the post card image.

More Higher Res Pictures of St Peter's Street, St Albans, circa 1900

St Peter's Street, St Albans

I am currently sorting through my collection of post cards (mainly from the 1900-1920 period) and will be adding higher resolution images to the pages on the main web site. (If the frame round an image is blue click for a bigger image or redirection to a new page.). In doing this I will often include completely new pictures - sometimes to illustrate the work of different photographers and post card publishers.

Click Here for new/upgraded pictures of St. Peters Street

If there is a page on the main web site where you would like to see more or higher resolution post card images add a comment below and I will add it to the "To Do" list

Post Cards of Cassiobury Park, Watford, 100 years ago

The Mill in Cassiobury Park  circa 1903

Anna drew my attention to the extensive online information on Cassiobury Park posted by the Friends of Cassiobury Park including a picture of the remains of the Mill.

I have significantly updated the page of old postcards of the park - which special emphasis on the Old Mill and Swiss Cottage, and in almost every case if you click on the image yoe will get access to a high resolution image. I have included a number of different views by different photographers and I am in the process of updating the photographer pages to help you date any images you may have. The update has involved adding about a dozen new views and adding high definition images behind some of the images already online.

See all the Post Card Images

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 ...)

Old Post Cards of Aldenham and Stanstead Abbotts

Otter's Pool, Aldenham (Rawlings)

St Andrew, Stansted Abbotts (Martin)

Cats Hill, Stanstead Abbotts (Wolsey)

Early Post Cards of Hertfordshire - by Wrench

Bishops Stortford

Sir John Evelyn Leslie Wrench (1882-1966) was actively interested in the unity of the British Empire and his post card activities only occupied a few years of a very active life. As a teenager he founded a post card publisher which expanded in a couple of years to become one of the biggest British publishers - and then went bankrupt because it had expanded too fast. He published a number of Hertfordshire view cards in 1903/4, all but one example seen so far having being printed in Saxony. All cards carry a negative number and those recorded so far are:

• 2195 The Parish Church, Watford
• 2196 The Fig Tree Tomb, Watford
• 2198 The Footbridge, Cassiobury Park, Watford
• 2199 The Swiss Cottage, Cassiobury Park, Watford
• 2664 Woodcock Lane, Hertfordshire (location uncertain)
• 2665 Beckhampton Place, Hertfordshire (location uncertain)
• 4919 Church [Interior], Kings Langley
• 4920 The Old Ruins, Kings Langley
• 4921 Church, Kings Langley (wrongly labelled)
• 4922 The Castle Ruins, Kings Langley ("Wrench" name/logo omitted)
• 4923 The Mill, Kings Langley ("Wrench" name/logo omitted)
• 4924 The Mill Bridge, Kings Langley (pub W. Baldwin)
• 5197 Pound House, Kings Langley (pub W. Baldwin)
• 6288 High Street, Bishops Stortford
• 6290 On the Stort, Bishops Stortford
• 6292 South Street, Bishops Stortford
• 6294 The George Inn, St Albans
• 6295 St Michael's Church, St Albans
• 6296 St Albans Abbey from S.W.
• 6297 St Peter's Church, St Albans
• 6303 French Row, St Albans
• 6304 Sopwell Nunnery, St Albans
• 6307 Town Hall, St Albans
• 7758 Congregational Church, New Barnet
• 7760 Hanley Church, Barnet
• 7762 Church & High Street, High Barnet
• 7765 Wesleyan Church, New Barnet
• 8584 Grand Staircase, Hatfield House
• 8586 View from N.W., Hatfield House
• 8587 South Front, Hatfield House
• 8631 Cassiobury Park, Watford
• 8632 The Chalet, Cassiobury Park, Watford
• 8638 Waterfall, Cassiobury Park, Watford

> > > See Pictures of Cards, etc.

If you know of other Hertfordshire cards in the series please let me have details.

I would be particularly interested if there were any on undivided backs, or cards with a style and number which suggests they were in the Wrench series but which do not carry the Wrench name/logo 

Another unusual Post Card from St Albans artist, KARAKTUS, c1909

St Albans

Post cards

During 1908/9 The Crown Publishing Co., St Albans, published 30 unusual "comic" cards by the artist Karaktus. I now have identified 26 different cards and would like to identify the cards numbered 6, 12, 19, 21 and 22. In addition I am looking for any clues as to the identity of Karaktus.

See all the cards so far identified HERE

Picture Updates on the Hertfordshire Genealogy Web Site

Post Cards

I am currently reorganising my post card collection and relating it to the pictures on the web site - some of which have been online since the site started in 2001. Few of the older pictures have high resolution images and some need re-scanning to fit in with recent scanning and display technology. In addition there are many cards in the queue waiting to appear on the site, together with some Victorian photographs and engravings. If I was not careful this newsletter (and the associated twitter feed @HertsGenealogy) could become full of notifications such that a single picture had been added to a tiny village.

There is already a page where the menu lists recent post card updates - and the main window normally shows one of the latest updates. The latest views can be accessed by clicking on the picture on the Home page. In future all cases where a single new picture has been added or a poor quality image replaced I will wait until there are a batch of such updates.

Military

Churches

(1) There is significant added text of historical or family history interest, perhaps in answer to a question..In a number of cases a new page may need to be created - for instance to have a special page for the parish church - and such changes will be reported

(2) The picture is particularly relevant to the First World War (pictures of troops, war memorials, etc.) because of the amount of interest in this area at present the present time.

The latest single image updates relate to:

• An early picture (before enlarged nave) of Christ Church, Radlett
• A picture of Christ Church, Chorleywood and vicarage
• A multiview card of Puckeridge from the 1930s.

Post Card Images of Your Ancestor's church

Churches

When this site started in 2001 the idea was to have one page of information and pictures of every town and village in Hertfordshire. Since then things have grown like topsy and some places have 20 or more pages of information. As a result it is easy to overlook the fact that the site includes 100+ year old pictures of nearly every parish church in the county. I have decided provide a quick access path to church information to make it easy for you to find pictures, and other information, of the church where your ancestor was baptised, married and/or buried.

The long term plan is to have a page for each ancient parish church, with comparatively high resolution picture from old post cards and, in some cases engravings, together with 19th century descriptions of the church, and other relevant information. In many cases this will mean moving church information off the appropriate town or village page, scanning the original post cards at a higher resolution, possibly adding completely new images, and adding appropriate early descriptions from my library. Because of the number of churches this will be an ongoing operation lasting at least a year.

The first stage has been to create a Parish Church "Home" Page - with links to the pictures already on this site, together with information on where you you can find additional information elsewhere on the web, including modern photographs of the churches. In addition index pages with thumbs for each of the churches have been created and those for the letters A, B, DEF, G, IJK, and T have already been populated. The other letters will be populated over the next couple of weeks.

In many cases the thumbs point to a dedicated page for the church, while in other cases they point to the first pictures of the church on the relevant town or village page. This means that you can quickly find the pictures of the church your ancestor used. Updating the individual church pages will be done on a priority basis - depending on demand. If you look for a church and would like higher resolution pictures, or more information, just tell me, or comment below. (It could help if you mention the nature of your interest as I might be able to find, for instance, a relevant memorial inscription to use as an example.) This will mean that the most popular churches will be given priority, and I don't waste my time updating information on churches no one is interested in. Don't be shy about asking. By asking you will ensure that the upgraded information will be available to other people visiting the site.

Any comments as to how easy you find the new facility is to use, and suggestions for improvement, will be very welcome.

Every Picture tells a Story - The Bishops Stortford funeral.

The funeral in Hockerill, Bishops Stortford, 1913

Old Post Cards

Bishops Stortford

I enjoy finding old post cards which tell us something about the past. Over 5 years ago I published two pictures of a funeral, and by looking at the pictures in considerable detail I was able to work out that the photographs were take in Bishops Stortford, in the winter months between 1912 and 1916. However I could not identify the name of the deceased but speculated that it might be Sir Walter Gilbey (of Gilbey's gin fame). The problem is that I did not have easy access to the Bishop's Stortford papers of the time.

Jill has now contacted me with additional information, which I have added to the page, which clearly shows that the deceased was Admiral Frederick Samuel Vander-Meulen, a local magistrate. She also supplied a modern photograph which clearly identifies the location of the other 1913 photograph.

Hill End Asylum, St Albans & Wikimedia Commons

Hill End Asylum, St Albans, circa 1904

I have just added the above post card image of Hill End Hospital, which shows the entrance block and the chapel, to the Hill End page of the main site.

And what has Wikimedia Commons to do with it? I hear you ask.

At the present time I am looking to upgrade my computer, tidy up my office and get my files in order. I am also looking into ways of ensuring long term access to some of the more valuable areas of the site. One area where this is possible is to "outsource" higher resolution images of old (out of copyright) post cards to Wikimedia Common. There will be no change to appearance of my web site until you click on a blue-framed image where there is a higher resolution image. The proposed new arrangement will show the larger image in a Wikimedia Common page - fully documented and with various sized images for download. In addition the images handled in this way will be permanently available to anyone. 

I have used the Hill End example to assess how well the approach works and you can see two Wikimedia images via the Hill End page or by clicking the following links.

Hill End - North side with reception building and chapel

Hill End - South side with ward buildings

Let me know, by a comment below, what you think of the change - and if the reaction is favourable I will start loading more higher resolution pictures onto the site where appropriate and copyright laws allow.

River Stort Navigation - Picture Update

On the Stort south of South Mill Lock

Bishops Stortford

Derek, who has been canoeing along the Stort for year has correctly located this picture as showing the Stort Navigation south of South Mill Lock, with the lock keepers cottage on the right. I have reprocessed the picture to give a better image. I have also provided higher resolution images to this and half a dozen other pictures of the Stort Navigation.

NOTE - The aim is to provide larger images for most post cards on the main web site. If there is not larger image on a card that interests you just ask. Even larger scans (at 600 dpi) can be produced in many cases if required.

Misses M & A Austin, St Albans Photographers

Herts Photographers

"An Elf"

I regularly monitor ebay for interesting Hertfordshire pictures to use on this web site. I had naturally concentrated on views and as a result I have missed out on two St Albans Photographers, Miss Mary Elizabeth Austin, and her sister Miss Amy Caroline Austin, of 75 Holywell Hill. [More Information]

"A Night Harbinger"

It is clear that they concentrated on art photograph post cards, particularly of children and cats, and it is likely that the two faces shown here, of child models they used, are of children who lived in St Albans in the early years of the twentieth century. It would be lovely to identify some of their models!

In addition to the art photographs the St Albans Museums have two pictures of the St Albans Fire Brigade (one with an award they won in 1903) and post card of a lady dresses up for the 1907 pagent.