Don't Forget, Wood was a commercial crop.

It is important to remember that wood was an important crop in 19th century Hertfordshire, and would be widely used, especially in rural area, as fuel and as building materials, and with pigs eating up the beech nuts and acorns. In addition small woods would have been kept as cover for foxes - as fox hunting was had a strong following among the rural well-to do. There were regular sales and this advert from the Herts Mercury gives details of oak trees being sold from several estates in the South East of the County. Many of the older woods that survive today have only survived because the trees were regularly harvested. 

Langsdorff & Co., Fine Art Publishers

Langsdorff & Co published a number of post cards of the Broxbourne area of Hertfordshire in the Summer of 1906, and as there appears to be nothing about the origins of this German company on the internet (at least in English) I was interested to get a query from Martin about its early days as a Fine Art Publisher as he has a print from 1901 giving the address 19 City Road, London..

Broxbourne Church from the River (Lea)
The Artist for this card (and others in the set) has not yet been identified

A provisional search showed that a Hans Langsdorff (born 1860 in Germany) was a merchant staying in Hamstead, London, in 1891 and 1901 while in 1899 Langsdorff & Co had an office in a large office block in Mincing Lane, London. However by 1910 they were in their own premises in City Road. It seems possible that Hans was an agent for a German company and saw an opportunity in the Fine Art Printing market, using German printers, and moved into the market, initially from the office in Mincing Lane.

An Accident on the Railway in 1841

The Reformer reports on a railway accident 
near Broxbourne in 1841.

Many workers got injured in building the railways and it is probably impossible to identify James Thompson/Green, assuming either was his real name.

Grissell & Peto were major building contractors - but do you know of any other work they did in Hertfordshire?

Broxbourne Almshouses

Danny's great great grandmother was living in the almshouses at Broxbourne at the time of the 1891 census. The houses are still there - and can be seen in Google Street Views of Broxbourne. I also located a 1905 picture and details of the charity Dame Laetitia Monnson set up that erected the Almshouse in 1728.

Book: Broxbourne & Wormley's Past in Pictures

Broxbourne and Wormley's past in pictures is a well presented hardback book from the Rockingham Press. It contains many pictures from early in the 20th century, together with some later views for comparison. Each picture has a brief but informative description, and there is a good index. It was published in 1995 but new and second hand copies are available online.