By the Grand Union Canal At Bulbourne (near Tring)

The Former Canal Workshops at Bulbourne

Grand Junction Canal

In recent years, particularly when I still had Franci, I have been walking along the many rural footpaths near Tring taking photographs. Many of these have been (and when I have time, still are) posted on Geograph including many taken from the towpath of the Grand Union Canal. 

Recently someone (I am withholding the name to avoid embarrassment) found the above picture on the internet and sent me the following message:

> Re: image for SP9313 (Grand Union Canal: The Bulbourne Workshops)
> Hi, Would like to know if you have any mooring available at present. My boat is 18 meters ?
> Thanks
> Look forward to hearing from you
> regards
> XXXXX XXXXX

When I had stopped laughing all I could do was to reply as follows:

Dear XXXXX,
I am glad you found my picture interesting - but all your can assume from the picture is that on 8th March 2009 I happened to be at Bulbourne with a camera.
I am afraid my camera is much too small for you to moor your boat inside.
All the best along the canal
Chris Reynolds

The Rickmansworth Historical Society

Many of the towns and villages in Hertfordshire now have local history societies which are run by, and for, people who live in the area and hold regular meetings with invited speakers. However many now have web sites, a newsletter, and other publications and even if you live too far away to attend meetings they can be an important source of information.

The Rickmansworth Historical Society is no exception and it is important to note that the Society's activities cover the history of the "old parish area" of Rickmansworth which includes Chorleywood, West Hyde, Mill End, Croxley Green, Loudwater, Batchworth and Eastbury as well as the town of Rickmansworth. They have monthly meetings which include talks of both general and specifically local topics and I note with interest that on the 13th March Bill Templeton is giving a talk on "13 corn and paper mills along the River Chess" which I am sure will include some Hertfordshire Mills such as the one at Loudwater. It has a quarterly newsletter, The Rickmansworth Historian, and there is a index of past issues, and a few selected articles on the web site. I found the article on the web site about Pest Houses very interesting - especially as it included details of a number of Hertfordshire pest houses I had not known about. 

There are a number of publications for sale, only one of which, Rickmansworth - A Pictorial History, I have reviewed on this web site. The latest of their publications is A Village Boyhood in Croxley Green, by Frank Paddick (1909-1965) which tells of a time when life in the village was dominated by Dickinson’s Croxley Mill.

Rickmansworth

Unlike many such local history sites their site does not include a collection of old photographs of the area  - but if you visit the Rickmansworth page of my site you will find many pictures (and additional historical information) ot the town and the surrounding villages.

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If your local history society, museum  or similar group has a web site relevant to local and family history in Hertfordshire why note drop me a line so I can include a review in this Newsletter, which currently gets around 200 hits a day from all over the world. 

Rural Relaxation: The Hamlet of Ringshall, Ashridge

On Sunday the sun came out and I decide to drive to Ashridge to have a walk through the woods and take a few photographs of nature. This was a mistake - everyone had decided to take advantage of the weekend sun and the drive to the Bridgewater Monument had cars parked solidly on both sides, and virtuall all the roadside parking areas were full to overflowing. When I did find somewhere to stop the recent rain, and hundreds of feet, had turned many of the tracks to a sea of mud. However I was close to the hamlet of Ringshall, just on the Bucks side of the County Boundary and about a mile from Ashridge House. As a recent enquiry had involved an ancestor who had worked for Lord Brownlow at Ashridge House, and had lived in one of the estate cottages, I decided to take a picture of some of the former estate cottages.

Ashridge House about 100 years ago - The cottages shown above would have accomodated estate workers.

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.

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.

No 11 Platoon, The Inns of Court, Berkhamsted, in 1916

The Inns of Court - No 11 Platoon - in Berkhamsted in 1916

Military

Inns of Court

As part of my contribution to remembering those who gave their lives in the First World War I have added another picture of the Inns of Court at Berkhamsted, taken by J. T. Newman. It was sent to a Mr & Mrs Bond, Bute Court, Torquay, Devon on 15th April, 1916 and reads:

This is the famous no. 11 Platoon with which I have drilled, grubbed, marched and slept for the last four months. Yesterday I heard that I had been put in a senior section and platoon - No 1 Sec. & No. 9 Plt. so on Monday I shall be with a fresh set of fellows providing I don't receive the blue form back by tomorrow.  If I don't receive it by Tuesday I shall be delayed at least a month from obtaining my commission so please return it as soon as poss. woud you?

Best Love    J.

I have not been able to identify the writer, but if your ancestor was stationed at Berkhamsted at about this date you might be able to recognise them if you look at the larger image.

The Sandridge Parish Council in 1894

Sandridge

At the end of 1894 the old parish vestry form of local government was abolished, and a parish council, with elected councillors, was established. To record the centenary Reg Auckland, a noted local historian, wrote an account of the first Parish Council meeting. The first councillors to be elected were: John Henry Smith (farmer of Evans Farm)(90 votes), Henry Alexander Taylor (farmer at Hill and farm and former way warden)(87), William Paul (83), Samuel Norman (grocer living in Culver Road, Bernards Heath)(82), Rev. James Alexander Cruikshank (66), James Slimmon (farmer at Marshalswick Farm)(74), Frederick William  Bush (Civil servant living at Dell Field, Sandridge)(83) and Harry Beasney Cox (farmer at Pound Farm and former overseer of the poor)(63).

Read the full account of the election and the first council meeting.

Short Newsletter Items (Mid January 2014)

Military

The next Herts Family History Society meeting is at Woolmer Green on 25th January. Jon Mein will be talking on Military Tribunals in Hertfordshire (appeals of men against conscription 1916–1918).

The National Archives are planning for the increased interest in the First World War with both online and "at Kew" activity. They have set up a special entry page to keep everyone informed.

St Albans

The SAHAAS is putting on an exhibition "St Albans c 1900: A Pictorial Showcase" in the North Trancept of St Albans abbey on 25th and 26th January.
 "Digital images of the photographs of E. Stanley Kent are to be shown alongside sketches drawn by Holmes Winter, an artist who knew the illustrator F.G. Kitton. Both were capturing scenes in St Albans around 1900, a time marked by significant increases both in population and commerce. Stanley Kent shows St Albans through the eyes of a photographer noting existing and newly-built buildings whilst Holmes Winter’s sketches are drawn of what he believed to be the “last of old St Albans”.

For those of you who like attending big exhibitions and collecting a bag full of leaflets you will "read sometime" don't forget Who do you think you are? is on 20th-22nd February.

Railways

Ian Pettigrew, of Tring,  has produced an interesting online research document "The Train now departing ... Notes and extracts on the history of the London to Birmingham Railway." Printed copies are available in the Tring Local History Museum.

Hunting

I have just had a query about "Lays of the Hertfordshire Hunt and other Sporting Verses" by George Robins and I have discovered it is now available online. (Online copies of old books relevant to this site are appearing on the web at frequent intervals, and I do not have time to track them all down.  If you come across one please let me know as I can publicize it and help everyone who is interested.

I was very interested to see that one of the volumes of the 1840s Children's Employment Commission is available online. While it does not include any information on Hertfordshire it makes interesting reading - with interviews of children employed in the sweat shops of the early industrial revolution. The following is one of the interviews.

SOS Kirby & Milton Family Photographs Arkley & Ware Herts

I just spotted an item on ebay which shows why it can be useful to monitor this online auction site for evidence of your ancestors and related families. An advert has just appeared which reads:

92 Original c1900-1950 photographs Kirby Family ( 1,Clayton Cottages, Arkley, Nr. Barnet, Herts ) and Milton Family ( Cowards Cottages, Thundridge Hill, Ware, Herts). There is also a Sydenham and Hoare family surname connection. Some are identified but not many. There is one WW1 soldier photo ( ' Milton ' hand written on back) and some WW2 army and RAF photos. They are mostly postcard size and in very good condition. All of the photos are shown in my pictures. I also have listed separately some old photographs of the Arkley War Memorial. 

If you are interested you have until the 17th January to bid.

What often happens if that someone dies and there is a house clearance - and there are no interested close relatives to save key items for the family archives - such items may simply end up in a skip. SOme may end up in the local auction rooms and eventually the more interesting items will be sold off on ebay - singly or as a collection as in this case. I recently purchased some Hertfordshire post cards which had mirror writing on the back and on checking back discovered that the seller had about 100 mirror writing cards for sale - which all came from a single album documenting the courtship of a couple at the beginning of the 20th century.  

On one occasion I purchased a large box of personal letters (about 100) and other papers from the early 19th century relating to a branch of my wife's Phipson family. It included a notebook of the same date which recorded several generations of an ancestral branch I had previously been unable to crack.

Of course, searching this way is a long shot, and works best if you have unusual surnames or place names. However don't expect immediate miracles. In 1939 my father took over a shop in Watchet, Somerset, and had some postcards published with his name, Reynolds, as the publisher. I have been running an automated ebay search for an example of one of these cards for about five years without success - but I am hoping that eventually one will turn up.

Callowland Boys School, Watford and its first headmaster

Class 3, Callowland Boys School, Leavesden Road, Watford, 1920

Schools

Watford

There must be a number of people now living in Watford who will have known some of the boys in this picture - so can anyone help to put a few names to faces (Higher resolution picture available on main web site.) The card has the words "Percy Cupid, born October 1907" written on the back but no boy is marked on the picture - and I could find no obvious Percy Cupid in the 1911 census.

Click here for short biographies of  Edwin Ashby, headmaster of the Boys School, and Annie Mary Gardner, headmistress of the Girls School further down Leavesden Road.