Little Jack of Cromer

I have just had a query from Jane asking if I knew of a midget called "Little Jack" who she says lived at Cromer (a tiny hamlet in Ardeley, near Stevenage) about 100 years ago. I think it is far more likely that her family tradition (see Chinese Whispers) relates to Cromer, Norfolk, which was a significant seaside resort. A hundred years ago such places regularly had "freak shows" where you could pay a penny and were then allowed to enter a tent where your would see the freak - which might be the incredible bearded woman, the shortest (or tallest, or fattest) man or woman, the Siamese twins, or perhaps a (stuffed) two headed dog.
     If you can say whether this query relates to Hertfordshire or Norfolk please comment below and I will tell Jane about it.

Ouch!!!

The last couple of days have been uncomfortable and I have had very little sleep. Hopefully posts will resume after a scheduled visit to the dentist on Tuesday.

There might be some other similar short "breaks" in service over the next few months. I am clearly getting to a stage in life when things start to wear out. I have two appointments for examinations each of which could lead to minor surgery (in one case for a cataract in my one good eye), plus appointments for a pre-op and op for a different issue. None are serious - but if postings become a bit erratic during February and March  I will be back.

*** 5th February *** The visit to the dentist involved some planned repair work - which was carried out satisfactorily -and an examination and X-ray showed nothing amiss in the area I was having pain ... but unfortunately the only effect of the treatment is that I am not taking so many paracetamol for toothache ...

Congratulations to Wikipedia for spotting this spam

When I logged on this morning I was delighted to find that Wikipedia had already taken action ....

     Once misleading or downright wrong information gets posted onto the internet there are many others people who simply echo the errors - see The Dangers of Internet Genealogy and The Myth of Stanstead Abbey. One of the problems in genealogy is that it is possible to search the internet for names and the more ignorant you are of English history, the history of surnames, and the  nature of the surviving contemporary documents, the more you are to assume that people with similar names might be related.

       So read on to find why I was so delighted.

What are these?

Today I visited  the Tring Local History Museum and they has a new display which had these two items.

Do you know what they are?

New Post Cards of Aldbury

Aldbury from the Church

I have added four new post card views of Aldbury, each of which can be enlarged to 1024 pixels wide. There are two published by C. Dickens of Aldbury, showing views of the Village from the Church Tower, and the Stocks Estate from Moneybury Hill. There is a view of the Church by Michael Chadwick of Tring. I also show a view of the area round the pond taken by the major publisher, Valentine, in 1903 but republished by DeFraine of Tring and posted in 1919.

The Reservoirs and Canals around Tring

Guide to Grand Union Canal near Tring

Over two years ago I posted a linked series of pictures of the Grand Union Canal in the Tring Area, taken while walking my dog, Franki (who appears in many of the older photos). The idea was to allow people to photographically explore the main canal, the Wendover Arm, the Aylesbury Arm, and the reservoirs near Tring (Startops, Marsworth, Tringford and Wilstone). This was done by posting pictures on the Geograph web site and linking them together. The idea was also to link them with the Canal pages of this site (still incomplete). However Geograph introduced a better way to link photographs and now allow bigger images to be archived, and rather than edit several hundred pictures already posted I abandoned the process. (In fact pictures of many other subjects - mainly around Tring - were also posted on Geograph by  me as "Chris Reynolds")

Low Water at Startops Reservoir, January 2012

     Recently I have been taking more pictures during my relaxation walks - including the impact of the lack of rain on the local reservoirs and the ones I have posted showing the Medieval field systems (Medieval Field System exposed in Wilstone Reservoir  and  More Evidence of Medieval Fields at Tring Reservoirs) have attracted a lot of attention. In addition I have offered to prepare a talk on the Industrial Archaeology of the Canal to the archaeology group of our local U3A.

     As I am already committed to doing more work I have decided that I will go through my large collection of photographs and post suitable ones on Geograph, and report my activities here, even if they are not directly linked to Hertfordshire. I also plan to update the Canal pages on this site, with cross links to the Geograph pictures. However this will all take some time

Chinese Whispers and Family Traditions

Chinese Whispers is a game where a verbal message is passed along a line, one person whispering to the next, and often the message that come out of the far end of the line is significantly different to the original message. This can happen over the generations with family traditions so be careful you do not drop a brick - by repeating the "old" story without checking.

I have just come up with a good modern example from my own family of how a story can change.

School Memories of the 1940 -Priory School, Kings Langley

Coombe Hill School (or Priory School as it was later known) was a pretty unconventional school in its attitudes to children. I am therefore delighted to being able to add Paul's memories of the school as it was over 50 years ago.

William George Bennett, St Albans Brickmaker

William George Bennett was one of the St Albans Brickmakers I have studied in detail, Louise has sent in some information about houses built in Cumberland Road in 1926 and I have added further biographical information.

Tales of the Old Frog at Weston

Tales of the Old Frog at Weston

Tales of the Old Frog at Weston sounds like an interesting read  It has recently been published by Richard Clements, a visitor to this web site, and he has sent me details. 

If you have read it please consider adding a review as a comment below.

It is impossible for me to keep in touch with all the many local history publications being published by individuals and local history societies across Hertfordshire - so please send me details (or even better a review copy) if you want one to be mentioned on this site.