Booklet: Ashridge in World War II

During the Second World War troops were camped in the woods of the Ashridge Estate and a hospital was opened at Ashridge. This little booklet, Ashridge in World War II is based on the memories of people who knew Ashridge during the war and gives details of the regiments that were billeted there. The hospital not only took casualties from Dunkirk but also victims from the German bombing raids. In addition many women from London were taken there just before they were due, and some 3000 births were recorded there between 1940 and 1946.

While this delightful little booklet was published in 2009/10 I noticed that copies were still for sale at the National Trust shop at Ashridge a few months ago. 

This is one of my Hertfordshire History Books for Christmas

More Information about Ashridge

Formation of the Volunteer Rifle Corps in 1860

Poem on the Volunteer Rifle Corps Meeting at Berkhamsted

 In January 1860 there were  meetings at Ashridge, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Tring to form a combined Rifle Corps. For details (and the full poem) click on the poem.

For the historic background see Wikipedia

Capability Brown and the Ashridge Estate (1761-68)

Interesting historical records can turn up anywhere - and more and more are ending up on specialist web sites. The above account book entry relates to the Duke of Bridgewater's account when Capability Brown was laying out the Ashridge Estate. You may read the account book on the Royal Horticultural Society's web site. 

More About Ashridge

If you have found some interesting historical documents about Hertfordshire on an unexpected web site why not share the information by commenting below.

Holloways at Aldbury

The Back Holloway at Aldbury

As the result of a query from the National  Trust (who own a large part of the former Ashridge estate) I have added two new pictures of the holloways running up the escarpment from Aldbury Village, and provided higher resolution pictures online for others. Several of these relate to the unusual Franco Series of post cards.

NOTE: I have a large collection of Hertfordshire post cards - many of which have not yet appeared online. While plans are being considered as to the best way to continue the web site on a reduced scale (see earlier post) I have decided that over Christmas and the New Year period I will be posting additional post card images. If you would like to see more pictures of a particular town or village let me know and I will try and digitize any relevant post cards I hold.

Hertfordshire Military Records on the British Newspaper Archive

The Army & Navy Gazette is currently being loaded onto the British Newspaper Archive and so far they have loaded the years 1860-66 and 1869-71 and I expect more years will soon appear online. I did a quick check and found many such as the following which relates to the formation of the 1st Hertfordshire Battalion.

Army & Navy Gazette, 4th August, 1860

Unfortunately the machine transcription left a lot to be desired - and errors in the above example meant that it would not have been found in searches for the place names Ashridge, Hemel, Hempstead, Tring and Watford or for the surnames Dorrien, Cust, and Pearce. Unfortunately such errors occur in all automatically scanned newspaper archives and you have to use your imagination when searching and try alternative search names.

However the accuracy of the surnames and places in the following item relating to the double marriage of the daughters of the late Mr John Beale, of Cheshunt, was satisfactory.

Army & Navy Gazette, 4th November 1869

Soldier Wood Carvings at Ashridge

These two wood carvings of soldiers now stand guard to the entrance of the National Trust Visitors' Centre, at Ashridge, near Tring

More information and photographs of Carvings

More About Ashridge

The Ashridge Training Camp, 1914, and the Outbreak of War.

Military

When War was declared in August 1914 the Territorials in the Hertfordshire Regiment were at their annual training camp - which was being held at Ashridge. The latest Dacorum Heritage Trust Newsletter (Summer 2014) includes details of the the camps as published in The Gazette on 1st August 1914, and what happened using information published on 8th August, together with some contemporary pictures.

The newsletter also says that on August Bank Holiday (Monday 25th August) Dacorum Heritage Trust will have a WWI themed display at the Lions Fete at Berkhamsted Cricket Club ground. Come and visit us in the marquee.

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At Ashridge Camp - Summer 1914

Hemel Hempstead

For further information on what was happening in the Hemel Hempstead area when war broke out see my book, The London Gunners come to Town, and the many pictures at higher resolution at Military Camps - Ashridge Park July 1914. More of the background is included in my talk The Terriers in West Herts in World War 1.

Soldiers leaving Camp at Ashridge,  Summer 1914

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Click here for pictures of earlier camps.

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.

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

Ashridge House in the late 18th century.

Ashridge

This print of Ashridge Abbey, publisher details unknown, is probably from about 1780, and corresponds in shape with the house shown on Dury and Andrews Map of Hertfordshire in 1766. The current house is the result of a rebuild by the Duke of Bridgewater in the first years of the 19th century. The map shows the house actually lay across the Herts/Bucks county boundary.

Rural Relaxation - Changing Seasons at Ashridge

A Misty Day at Clickmere Pool

Over the last six years I have been photographing a small dew pond near Ashridge Monument on different occasions so that you can enjoy watching how this woodland pool changes with the seasons and from year to year. I have already posted about 50 pictures and more are to be added shortly.

View the pictures

Flog It from Ashridge on BBC TV today

I have just been informed that the Flog It programme filmed at Ashridge House last year (see Flog it at Ashridge House, near Berkhamsted and I didn't Flog It at Ashridge) is to be broadcast this afternoon at 4.30 pm and will presumably be available on BBC Iplayer for about a week. I will be interested to see what they decided to sell.

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Well - none of the items they decided to sell had any strong Hertfordshire (or Buckinghamshire) connection but much to my surprise I ended up in the background of one of the valuations!

It was interesting to see how they arranged the background as it was always changing and there was no way you could arrange to be in a shot. In the camera foreground was the table where the valuations were being filmed. Behind them were several tables where the preliminary assessment were being made to see which might be selected for filming. Behind them again was a double line of chairs snaking round the room. These chairs were in fact a queue and when someone moved to a selection table everyone moved on to the next chair. In fact the queue extended round a corner into a second room. Part of this queue can vaguely be seen through a connecting doorway behind my head.

Rural Relaxation - In the Woods at Ashridge

The sun shines through the trees on the carpet of fallen leaves on the Ashridge Estate
click on picture for larger image

Special Trees & Woods of the Chilterns

As some of you may know there is a page on this web site with pictures of Hertfordshire Trees which were considered notable 100 years ago. There is also another page with old pictures of Tombs with Trees in Hertfordshire Churchyards. In connection with these trees I was in touch with Rachael Sanderson several years ago about a project to record interesting old trees in the Chiltern Hills.

Today I attended the Chilterns Countryside and Food Festival at Ashridge and discovered a book, Special Trees & Woods of the Chilterns, was been published in 2010. It is an attractive volume which deals with trees and woods in Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire (the vast majority are here), Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire. The Hertfordshire section deals with:

• Woods of the Whippendell Valley
• Ashridge
• War Wounds
• Hockeridge and Pancake Woods
• Abbey Pagoda
• Domesday Oak
• Croxley Green Commerative Trees

Military Training in Hertfordshire - 1905 to 1914

Herts Imperial Yeomanry Camp at Berkhamsted, May 1906

I have posted post cards (and some other photographs) of camps for volunteers and the Territorial Force  (later Territorial Army) troops under the headings:

At Ashridge in 1905

Various locations 1906-1913

At Lydd in 1909

Photo Album 1913-14

At Ashridge 1914

The Territorial Force Camp at Ashridge in 1914
The camp broke up prematurely due to the outbreak of the First World War

As part of a long term program to restructure the large number of military related pages I have started a "home page" for military pages relating to pre-1914 information - with links to battles and castles.

Can you supply details (preferably with pictures) of other camps your ancestor attended - as there would have been a summer camp every year?

I didn't Flog It at Ashridge

Paul Martin examining an antique at Ashridge

Having posted details of Flog It coming to Ashridge I had to go and take something interesting to be valued. I arrived at Ashridge shortly after ten and took a seat at the back of the library and for the next five and a half hours played a kind of musical chairs in that every time the person at the head of the queue was seen by a valuer everyone moved along a chair. In fact it was all quite civilized and it was possible to get up and stretch ones legs and get a cup of coffee and a cake - which is when I took the above picture of Paul Martin doing an interview sitting at the bottom of the stairs.

Flog it at Ashridge House, near Berkhamsted

The BBC TV program "Flog It"- which values your antiques and then sells some of them off at auction - is coming to Ashridge on 31st August.

The Rhododendron Walk
circa 1930

In addition it has been announced that the plans to restore the gardens at Ashridge House are to include replanting the rhododendrons which line the Wellintonia Avenue, as original mass of different coloured varieties has been lost because of the vigorous growth from the rootstock. I have therefore added "new" old post card images of the gardens to the web site - all of which can be enlarged by clicking the displayed picture. (Even larger images are available on request). At the same time I have added a menu to the Ashridge Pages.

The Gardens at Ashridge House

 As part of my plans to have a short break over the Jubilee period I went with the Tring U3A Gardening Group to see the historic gardens at Ashridge House which are currently being restored. 

Some Views of the Gardens at Ashridge House  taken by Chris Reynolds on Geograph
ArmorialGarden	Rhododendrons	Italianate Garden
Terrace Garden	Wellingtonia Avenue	The Lawns

I have now posted over 30 pictures of these historically important gardens on Geograph, some taken this year and some taken on a visit at the end of May three years ago. I have also added three pictures of the excavations which are uncovering the remains of the medieval church that stood on the site.

Autumn in Hertfordshire - At Ashridge

 The Ashridge Estate is only a short drive from where I live, and the fine weather tempted me to go there for a walk and a hot drink at the Brownlow Cafe at the National Trust centre.

The purpose was to enjoy the winter sun and take some photographs of the autumn colours, and some fallen leaves to use as wall paper on my computer.

Autumn at the Monument

Autumn Colours in the Woods

Fallen Beech Leaves

Fallen Oak Leaves

Family Trees or Woodland Trees.

Measuring an ancient beech tree at Ashridge

When we draw up our family trees we tend to forget that there are living trees which were around when out great great great (or more) grandfathers were alive. The above beech tree is in the Ashridge National Trust estate, not far from where I live, and is about 200 years old. It is the 100,000 tree to be recorded in the Ancient Tree Hunt and can be seen in the 100,000th tree video

Thomas Godman's map of 1803 (from Aldbury, The Open Village) showing that about 210 years ago the  location of the tree (approx location shown) was open common land.

If you want to know where there are ancient trees near where your Hertfordshire ancestors lived, which they could have seen, you could try looking at this Interactive Map although I am sure there are many more trees to be recorded.

See also 

Old Pictures of Ancient Hertfordshire Trees