Tring News on 20th March, 1915

Military

While there were a large number of troops billeted in and around Tring the main military news in the local section of the paper was that there had been two concerts for their entertainment. One was put on by Mrs Williams at Pendley Manor and the other was arranged by the Soldiers' Entertainment Fund and held in the  Medical Inspection Hall (now the Victoria Hall). However in the main part of the paper, covering Aylesbury, there are indications that billeting is to end in April, and the soldiers will be moving on.

Old News

One of the soldiers, based in nearby Aston Clinton was before the court for driving a car with no lights and one can only wonder if the police were tightening up after the accident in which two soldiers had been killed a week or so earlier. One may also wonder if some of the road repairs deemed necessary were due to the wear and tear due to the number of troop movements in the area, and the construction of the camp at Halton.

Tring

In normal years local gardeners would be able to compete for prizes in events such as the Tring Agricultural Show, but many had been cancelled, However the Daily Mail had announced a grand show of vegetables in London in September, and Arthur Dye, of Tring Park Gardens, was co-ordinating entries for the area.

On the religious front the Baptist Church at New Mill had meetings supporting the Baptist Missionary Society while the Baptist Chapel at  Wigginton celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Sunday school.  There was also the usual order of services for the Parish Church.

Easter was being celebrated in a different was by W. Brown & Co, auctioneers - who were inviting entries to the Tring Easter Fat Stock Show and Sale - and they were also to sell off a baker's tools and trade utensils - including a dough mixer, a cake making machine, and a waggonette and a useful tradesman's horse.

Surnames: Ariston, Bagnall, Baker, Birch, Brooks, Brown, Clark, Curtis, Dell, Downes, Dye, Eggleton, Fulks, Gomme, Groome, Hazell, Heading, Hemmens, Hutton, Kirby, Kirk, Lang, Locke, Longman, Mather, Mullins, Page, Rothschild, Rowe, Sait-Knight, Swann, Taylor, Thorne, Ward, West, White, Wilding, Williams, Winterton

Extracts from the Bucks Herald of 20th March, 1915

Edited from British Newspaper Archive

A Detour into Buckinghamshire

One of the frustrations of this web site has been that I live in Tring - which is the western part of Hertfordshire which is surrounded on three sides by Buckinghamshire. I enjoy walking the countryside, taking photographs of features of historical interest and well as the wild life and farming activities. With the Vale of Aylesbury to my north, and the Chiltern Hills to the east and west there is much to keep me occupied - but most of it is in Buckinghamshire.

William Brown's Account Book

The point is that the county boundaries of Hertfordshire are in most places highly arbitrary - and mainly derive from the boundaries of Anglo-Saxon estates over 1000 years ago. While administrative history may limit itself to such boundaries they are for most purposes arbitrary lines which in some place are not even marked by as much as a hedgerow. Treating the county boundary as a rigid "no-cross" line causes significant difficulties if you are discussing local history.

One example relates to Tring as a market Town - when many of the people who used the market to buy and sell would have crossed the county boundary to do so. William Brown was an auctioneer in Tring in the 19th century and, when I have time, I am presenting details of his Customer Account Book which again deals with customers on either side of the boundary.

The Lock at Startops End

Another example relates to the Canal, its branches, and its reservoirs, where any account of its history automatically involves both Herts and Bucks - particularly the Bucks village of Marsworth.

To make it easier to cover issues which cross the county boundary it has been decided to introduce pages for Buckinghamshire parishes which are associated with the canal, plus some adjacent parishes in the Vale of Aylesbury. Each page will consisted of one or two old post cards images and links to my modern photographs, which will be held as high resolution images on Geograph. There will also be links to cross-boarder topics on the Hertfordshire web site and external links to other relevant web sites. There will be no attempt to duplicate the excellent information on Buckinghamshire GENUKI.

To get this rolling the Buckinghamshire page has been updated, together with demonstration pages for Marsworth (which includes a significant section of the Grand Union Canal) and Aston Clinton (which includes short sections of the Aylesbury and Wendover Arms of the Canal, and the site of a former Rothschilds House.) This will be considered a low priority project with perhaps one or two place pages added each month.