Update of of Information on 20th century Cemeteries

In 2007 I gave some advice on Burials in Stevenage in the 20th Century and included a web address which I now discover has been changed - and I have updated the link on my site accordingly. Jeff Knaggs' web site now contains memorial stone lists for the following cemeteries:

• Knebworth Cemetery
• Almonds Lane Cemetery, Stevenage
• Weston Road Cemetery, Stevenage
• St Mary's Church and Churchyard, Shephall, Stevenage
• Welwyn Cemetery
• Woolmer Green churchyard

The Hill End Hospital Cemetery

Google Satellite view 2017

It is some years since I visited it and posted details on the Genealogy Web Site and a recent query to this blog reminded me that I should bring the information up to date. The original web page related to the cemetery in 2009, at a time when work was being done to get it in order and make it respectable. I visited it again two or there year later and took photographs which are somewhere among some 25,000 waited to be sorted!  While I have added a future visit to my "to do" list I have decided to use the services of Google to see the current position.

It would seem that a small garden of rest area has been laid out adjoining the path but the area where most of the graves is much as it was in 2007 - in effect a hay meadow with many young trees (I suspect mainly oak). As such the Garden should be a pleasant place to sit and rest and contemplate nature - which was one of the things my daughter Lucy did when she was a patient there.

For more information on the Hertfordshire Asylums see ASYLUM

In updating the page I came across a problem that might affect other pages on the web site. I had included a direct link to Google showing a satellite view before any changes (circa 2007) and of course this had automatically updated to a different 2017 view.

Genealogists' Magazine - December 2013 - Burial Records

SoG

I have just received the latest copy of the Genealogists' Magazine, The Journal of the Society of Genealogists.

It contains a useful article on UK Burial Records on the Deceased Online Web Site which lists many municipal cemeteries including the following from Hertfordshire.

• Kingshill Cemetery, Berkhamsted (1947)
• Heath Lane Cemetery, Hemel Hempstead (1878)
• Woodwells Cemetery, Hemel Hempstead (1960)
• Tring Cemetery, Tring (1894)
• Bury Green Cemetery, Cheshunt (1855)
• Ware Road Cemetery, Hoddesdon (1883)

The Hoddesdon Cemetery includes burials re-interred from St Monica's Priory.

There is an article on the Society of Genealogists Apprentice index, produced in 1920 and now being put online, which includes some apprentices from Hertfordshire.

Other articles don't relate to the county but I really enjoyed reading about Dr Thomas Smethurst, The Richmond Prisoner, which has some interesting twists at the end, and I was interested to discover the army pensioners were sent to Western Australia from 1850 to act as guards to some of the last prisoners to be transported.

The "new" 1853 Cemetery at Tring

The Account Book

As part of my project to document selected entries in William Brown's account book I have examined his account with the Churchwardens at Tring. In June 1851 he was asked to make drawings and estimates for a wall round the proposed new cemetery, and in November 1852 he sold off wood from a piece of land purchased from Mr Norman, which would appear to be the Cemetery site. I have added a map, a press account of the consecration of the site, and links to modern pictures showing what is there now.

Tring

The folio in the account book also refers to a "lighting rate" (to pay for gas street lighting), work on an unidentified property in Frogmore Street, and work to be done on Tring's Poors Land.

The Great Northern London Cemetery

The End of the Line by Martin C Dawes

I have posted a "draft" review page for this book and will add a contents list and review on request. This will allow me to include more books - only reviewing those that are of proven interest to visitors to this site. If you have a copy why not help others by sending me a review.

Mental Health Records in Hertfordshire

Yesterday I attended the "Herts and Minds" evening at HALS and was impressed by the range of original documents relating to mental heath in the Hertfordshire county archives. I was interested to see the case notes of early Hill End Asylum patients and the deaths register. I noted the burial details of Emily Evans, whose tombstone I had recorded on the page about old asylum cemetery - and it appears that the first few patients who died in the asylum had grave stones - but later patients had more economic burials. However, despite the wealth of material on display the message I left with the impression that for many of the mentally ill of the past very few records remain.

In addition to the documents on display there was a very informative series of display panels on the history of mental illness in Hertfordshire over the centuries. They will remain at HALS until the end of next week, but it is planned to make them available on the Out of Sight, Out of Mind web site. (this site has greatly improved since I last visited it.) There was also a very informative booklet .about the Out of Sight, Out of Mind project - and the map showing the five St Albans Asylums is taken from this booklet. The booklet is interesting for its honesty in that it looks at the various events in the history of the project and for each identifies "What worked", "What could have gone better" and "Special moment". 

There were also two stands. The Hitchin Historical Society is adding to their list of publications by bringing out a new book Cold Baths don't Work - A History of Mental Health Care in the Hitchin Area, by Mike Clarke. It is being launched at 10.30 on 29th October at Centenary House, Grammar School Walk, Hitchin, SG5 1JN. 

The mental health charity Viewpoint was also there and I had a long talk as I was in regular contact with the charity about five years ago - when I ran the blog Hertfordshire Mental Health Crisis. (Since running this I have retired from all the committees I was on - so I am not involved in the current more serious cut backs.)