Recent Correspondence (May 2015)

Charles Campbell Ridgway was a pupil at Lockers Park School, Hemel Hempstead, in 1915. Following a query from Alan, who is related to him, I have added Charles' obituary from the Times. See Ephemera - an empty envelope.

Thanks to information received from Christine I have placed a link to the Chidwickbury Stud on the Childwickbury page.

I have had two queries about photographs taken by Thomas Latchmore of Hitchin, relating to people in the pictures. In neither case was there sufficient clues to be able to identify the individuals. (The more dateable examples of work by Hertfordshire photographs the more I can help people date their old pictures.)

Remember the Childwickbury Fallen

Military

Childwickbury, St Michaels, St Albans

I was delighted to see that there is a project to remember the fallen who worked on the Childwickbury Estate. 

A permanent memorial is proposed with 16 names from the First World War, and 6 from the Second World War. 

Christine Aitken is also planning a book Childwickbury in Wartime and she would love to here from you if you have a relative who worked on the estate, or with the Childwickbury Stud.

More Information

I have also added a post card picture of "The Rosary" to my online collection of pictures of Childwickbury

Hawkswick - A typical Victorian Gentleman's Residence

Hawksbury, St Michaels, St Albans circa 1900

Hawkswick, St Michaels parish, St Albans, was built around 1870 and was the home of four well-to-do businessmen and a Countess, and their live-in domestic staff. It is a good example of the kind of country home that successful businessmen were building or living in, within an hour's train journey into London. After the First World War, followed by the 1920's depression, such houses became uneconomical, which may be the reason why Hawkswick was demolished in 1931. The owners, or later tenants, were:

George Fernley Whittingstall,   c1870 - 1873

George Checkland,   1873 - 1879

John Sherriff Hill,   1881- 1897

Dowger Countess of Limerick,   1898-1900

Walter Reynolds,  1900 - 1924

I have updated the biographical information about the families who lived there, including additional press coverage. Further information about the house, with an emphasis on its description based on  several surviving sales brochures is available in Christine Aitken's excellent book on Childwickbury - which I have just reviewed. Christine and I used very different sources, and as a result our two accounts nicely complement each other.

St Michaels

St Albans

In addition I have taken the opportunity to restructure the pages on the parish of St Michael, part of which was in the borough of St Albans and the rest (including Childwickbury, Hawksbury and Gorhambury) were in the rural part of the parish.