Standon Church with its separate church tower

Standon Church

Standon

St Mary's, Standon, is an interesting church. Like many other Hertfordshire churches the tower is topped by a "Hertfordshire Spike" - a very narrow steeple. However the big difference in that the tower is not part of the main church but is a separate building standing alongside the chancel. I visited the church in 2006 and took some photographs - now I have added three old post cards showing the church as it was about 100 years ago.

Colonel Morgan and Aldenham Lodge in 1912

Aldenham Lodge, Radlett

The Military

Aldenham

At the time this post card was posted Aldenham Lodge was occupied by Colonel (later Brigadier General) Hill Godfrey Morgan, his wife, and a large team of domestic servants. Morgan had a distinguished career in India, at Khartoum, in South Africa, and after leaving retirement was Assistant Director of Supplies in the First World War. [More Information]

The Hertfordshire Kennels and a top Cruft's Winner

Hampton Guard (Cocker Spaniel) - posted in Ware 1909

Ware

I spotted this card on eBay and decided it was a good example of a business post card to display on this site. Once I started to research it I ended up looking at two different genealogy stories. Richard Lloyd (1847-1906) spent much of his life working for the Ellis Family at a pub in Ware called the Punch House (which still exists), and if you just look at the standard genealogical records you would not think to look further. But on the side Richard was a dog breeder who won an award at the first "open to all breeds" Cruft's Dog Show, in 1891. His son Herbert Summers Lloyd (the signature on the above card) later won "Best in Show" a record six times, and his granddaughter was still showing dogs at Crufts as late as 2011. 

And of course the dogs were pedigree - although I did not have time to research their family tree in any detail.

More Information

Joseph Hunt and the Radlett Murder of 1823

Help Desk

Probert's Cottage

 Occasionally I get a question where there is an impossibly large amount of information linking someone to Hertfordshire - but the vast bulk is irrelevant to trying to unpick their genealogy. Francis, who live's in Bathurst, New South Wales, has asked such a question relating to the murder of William Weare by John Thurtell. 

John Thurtell's accomplice Joseph Henry Baine Hunt, is my gr gr great grandfather. I was just wondering if there is any information about his direct family in the Hertfordshire area, before he was transported to Australia in 1824. His story means so much to me, for my family's existence was literally hanging by a thread in the courts at Hertford in 1823/24. I would like to know if anything is known about his life before the terrible crime. (Joseph died in 1861 at the age of 67, He was a district constable in Bathurst at the time of his death "Noted on his Death Certificate",and his drinking habits got the best of him in the end.)

I have replied as follows:

Rural Relaxation - Mallard Ducks at Ashridge

Mallard Ducks in Clickmere Pond close to the Bridgewater Monument, on the National Trust Ashridge Estate. The pond is a former dew pond - and originally there were a number in the area, probably built for the cattle on the drove roads that crossed the Chiltern Hills.

The Bridgewater Monument about 100 years ago.

In the past, when I still had Franci, I would walk on parts of the Ashridge Estate once or twice a week, often stopping off at the Brownlow Cafe, about 100 yards of the monument. Now that I no longer have a dog I still visit, but now only about once a month, and often take pictures of the pond to record how it changes through the year, and from year to year.

Clickmere Pond in February 2010

Identifying WW1 post cards of soldiers in Hertfordshire.

The Military

Before Christmas I posted Something for you to do over Christmas to raise money for charity - the idea being to try and identify more soldiers who were in Hertfordshire from old post cards and other pictures. I report on three responses below.

======================================

8th London (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

The First is a post card showing soldiers grouped round a howitzer. Fiona tells me that the officer standing behind the gun is Eustace Nugent Fitz-George de Radcliffe Cooper. This confirms that the picture shows the unit which was based at Apsley, Hemel Hempstead between August 1914 and March 1915. As a result I have posted an old newspaper report from 1914 which mentions several soldiers who were members of the Brigade. Because a number of names are on record it should be possible to identify further officers and men who are in the picture - but I put this up as a challenge for visitors to this site.

More Information

======================================

2/14th Battalion, London Scottish at North Mimms

Peter has kindly provided five digital images of the London Scottish on a musketry course at North Mimms in August 1915, Information on the back of one of the post cards allows the soldiers to be identified as part of the second line battalion, the first line battalion having been one of the first battalions to see action in October 1914. While there is not definite evidence it seems likely that the musketry course involved shooting on the Chalk Hill Firing Range..

More Information

======================================

Jon has suggested that this picture of the Imperial Service Division at St Albans shows them on parade on the former St Albans School playing fields at Belmont Hill. The large house in the middle background with multiple chimneys would therefore be Torrington House - close to the site of Holywell House owned by the Marlboroughs/Spencers well into the 1800s. It would have been close to the White Hart HQ.

More Information

======================================

Donate Here

I am still interested in any further information on troops who were based in Hertfordshire in the 1914-1919 period - and as promised in the earlier post I have made a donation of £20 to support the Mentally ill in Hertfordshire.

The Impossibles Football Team traced to Callowland area of Watford

Several years ago I posted the following post card image on the web site

The Impossibles 1920/1

Military

Football

The ball is inscribed ?VFC 1920/21 and the players are named on the back and called "The Impossibles."  I have received no suggestions since then about the proper name or location of the club. As the 1911 census is now available I decided to see if I could find any of the players. Because of the ten year gap between the census and the photographers many of the footballers could have been expected to move house  but I was in luck. In 1911 3 players were living in Leavesden Road, Watford, and three more were living in other roads in the Callowland area of Watford.

More Information

 

St Michael's and All Saints, Watford

Help Desk

Following a query about a post card showing the Church of St Michael and All Angels before the tower was added I have created a page about the church, with two pictures with higher resolution images available on the wen site.

The first post card image, by Coles, shows the church hall, which was built in 1905 and which acted as a church until the church proper was built on the adjacent site. The second picture shows the church as it was when it opened in 1913 without a tower.

Watford

Because of the war the tower was not added until 1926.

Currently I don't have a post card of the church taken in the 1920's or 30s showing the tower to complete the story of the church's construction. Can you help?

New Year Bargains (1914 style) at Hemel Hempstead

 Get the latest music centre for less than £1.50 and the latest songs for £0.05 each.

Buy a piano for a mere £21.

The latest Humber car is ready for you to collect at a bargain price.

See the original Adverts 

Farewell 2013 ... Welcome 2014

Looking back on 2013 the site has continued to attract a large number of visitors - totaling over 268,000 visits to the main web site, with an average for three pages viewed per visit. The number of page views on the Newsletter is over 200 per days and there have been new 399 posts. The big disappointment is that in a year when the need is greater than ever the money collected for the mentally ill in Hertfordshire is significantly lower than in 2012 - and has only got as high as it did (£537 when the target was £1200) because of a small number of generous donations. 

Ask Chris

In addition to straight genealogy questions some historical topics have proved of great interest to visitors, or to me. The location of the Chalk Hill Rifle Range, near St Albans, has now been identified. The Missing Lunatics of Harpenden Hall have now been identified. I was delighted to help the Victoria & Albert Museum with a possible provenance for a mirror. There was an outrageous coincidence when I purchased the picture of an unknown soldier to find the background view was the rear of my Grandfather's surgery. Other pictures have been identified such as the last Under-Bailiff of Hemel Hempstead, and the Chaplin of Watford Union Workhouse. My work on the Customer Account book of William Brown has turned up some interesting stories including information to the history of Tring Grove. My search for humorous cards by Karaktus, published in St Albans circa 1909 has continued to be successful, but I still do not know who he is. I have posted information on many other photographers and/or post card publishers. I have also been trying to find out more about the arbele trees sold in the Tring area about 150 years ago. Another case (among many) where the British Newspaper Archives has been useful involved the history of the Kimich family of German clock and watch makers. As a result of a post from Richard I now know more about a railway worker who was killed at the start of the Second Maori War in New Zealand. My most interesting Rural Relaxation picture was taken on a visit to College Lake where I photographedan Avocet standing next to a Black-tailed Godwit! Finally the most popular post of the year was the Japanese Garden in Hertfordshire  with many visitors immediately after a BBC program on the subject.

At the end of the year I took a break to relax over Christmas which went well - including an unplanned trip to collect a visitor whose train was not running on Christmas Eve - when the journey included driving through the flood waters of the River Mole. I also planned to spend some time sorting out some other matters, including switching at least some of my computer work onto a laptop running under Windows 8.  This has gone slower than expected. Part of the problem is my age, which means that I am not as fast as I was. However the real problem is that I have been spending too much time on the genealogy web site/newsletter - and on ebay - and a number of the tasks (such as organising household paperwork so that I can find it) have become more complex because of neglect. 

So my New Year's Resolution is simple. I have decided that for the time being Genealogy in Hertfordshire will have to take a back seat, but the site will not be abandoned but just "work" in a more sedate fashion.. 

Donate Here

The plan is to update the main web site and the newsletter once a week (normally on a Friday). I will continue to answer questions, add new material, and fill in some of the gaps - but at a slower rate. I will be even more appreciative than ever if you can help by making comments on what is already on the site, and letting me know of new historical Hertfordshire publications. See Why is your local history society or museum missing? for one way in which you can help. And I want no crocodile tears from those of you who have used the site regularly for years, and asked me questions, but have never made a donation. With such a low pound collected  per hour expended rate you have no ground to complain ...