Wharncliffe, Chorleywood & its literary connections

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Toni is looking for an early picture of this house, facing the Common at Chorleywood, so the exterior can be restored to what it was like 100 years or so ago (before the garish shop front!).  Can you help? It is possible that a partial view might be on a picture of the nearby chapel (now closed) which is a few yards down Colleyland.

In checking the history of the house it would seem it was built between 1891 and 1899 and in 1901 was occupied by a baker called Frederick Baldwin. The property was still in use as a baker's shop into the 1960s and possibly later. Interestingly Frederick appears to have taken lodgers and between 1899 and 1901 the writer William Sharp (who also wrote under the name of Fiona McLeod) took rooms in the house, in part to get away from the winter smogs in London..

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Some newly acquired post cards

I have added a varied batch of new Hertfordshire views(all with higher resolution images) as follows:

Military

A View of Batchwood Camp, St Albans, taken by L. L. Christmas in September 1915. It  shows the North Staffordshire Lines, and was in the St Albans area at about the same time as Briton's Camp (location unknown) was in existence.

I have created a page for four early 20th century pictures of New Birklands School, St Albans, two of the exterior, one of the dining room, and one of the garden. Three were taken by a London firm of photographers, Elliott & Fry, who had photographic works in Barnet. The other was taken by Montiville Evans, of St Albans. I have added details of the schoolthen just called Birklands, in the late 20th century, but have not yet researched it foundation.

Marsworth is on the Grand Union Canal on the birder with Hertfordshire, and close to Tring, so of interest despite being in Buckinghamshire. About a dozen post cards (possibly mostly amateur snapshots from about 1905) appeared recently on ebay and I purchased a number - some of which are good enough to justify high resolution scanning. As it is always a pity when a contemporary collection like this gets dispersed I have also included reduced sized thumbs to record those I did not win. 

Also included in the update were two pictures of Chorleywood, a picture of Radlett parish church before the wider nave was added, and a picture of  Nether Hall, at Widford.

Picture Updates on the Hertfordshire Genealogy Web Site

Post Cards

I am currently reorganising my post card collection and relating it to the pictures on the web site - some of which have been online since the site started in 2001. Few of the older pictures have high resolution images and some need re-scanning to fit in with recent scanning and display technology. In addition there are many cards in the queue waiting to appear on the site, together with some Victorian photographs and engravings. If I was not careful this newsletter (and the associated twitter feed @HertsGenealogy) could become full of notifications such that a single picture had been added to a tiny village.

There is already a page where the menu lists recent post card updates - and the main window normally shows one of the latest updates. The latest views can be accessed by clicking on the picture on the Home page. In future all cases where a single new picture has been added or a poor quality image replaced I will wait until there are a batch of such updates.

Military

Churches

(1) There is significant added text of historical or family history interest, perhaps in answer to a question..In a number of cases a new page may need to be created - for instance to have a special page for the parish church - and such changes will be reported

(2) The picture is particularly relevant to the First World War (pictures of troops, war memorials, etc.) because of the amount of interest in this area at present the present time.

The latest single image updates relate to:

• An early picture (before enlarged nave) of Christ Church, Radlett
• A picture of Christ Church, Chorleywood and vicarage
• A multiview card of Puckeridge from the 1930s.

John was "not at home" during the 1871-1911 censuses ...

Have you ever had the problem of tracking down  a relative and find that they were not living at home on census night? I just came across an extreme example.

The Cedars, Chorley Wood by E S Brown, Rickmansworth

Rickmansworth

Having acquired a post card of "The Cedars," Chorleywood, near Rickmansworth, I decided to post a page giving the background to the post card. I discovered that in October 1861 a banker (and later MP) called John Saunders Gilliat purchased the Chorleywood Estate, pulled down the old mansion, and built a grand new house called The Cedars. He lived there until his death in 1912. The search for information was not helped by his mobility. He and his family were not in residence in 1871 -w hen he was living in a London house. They were visiting relatives in 1881 and 1891 and in 1901 and 1911 he was living at his London address, 18 Princes Gate, London.

More information.

Sir George Alexander at Chorleywood in 1911

Rickmansworth

Mrs & Mr George Alexander 

Following my recent posting of a picture of The "other" Oscar Wilde's currying connection with Hertfordshire I have now posted a picture of Sir George Alexander, the actor manager who lived at Chorleywood, Rickmansorth. He produced the "real" Oscar Wilde's plays Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance of being Earnest. Sir George built Tollgate Cottage, Rickmansworth, not far from where the "other" Oscar Wild's family lived! 

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Alice Des Clayes pictures of Berkhamsted

Places

Berkhamsted High Street

Alice Des Clayes studied at the Bushey School of Art before moving to Canada. I have posted three of her paintings of Berkhamsted. These were published as postcards by Suttley and Silverlock, a London publishing firm established in 1915, who also published a series of post cards of Chorleywood by Maud Huntsman.

Chalfont Road, Chorleywood Post Card

Chalfont Road, Chorleywood, circa 1905

Mr Gates kept The Gate Public House at Chorleywood

Chorley Wood near the Gate Inn

In preparing this card for display I noticed the very unusual franking mark on the stamp. In addition the name of the  landlord in The Gate public house turns out to be Mr Gates?

At the same time I reorganised the Chorleywood pages and there are now separate pages for the Parish Church, King John's Farm, and Maud Huntsman's painted post cards.

Waterfield, Heronsgate, Chorleywood, identified

Waterfield House, circa 1902

 Last month I was able to locate this house to somewhere near the Land of Liberty public house. Judy has now provided a photograph (circa 1902) and sales particulars from 1953. The additional information strongly suggests that Waterfield was immediately to the east of the public house, where The Hollies (a small development of modern houses) now stands.

Judy also tells us the story of how Jane Camp went to Canada to marry Charles King, who she had never met!

DON'T FORGET ANY DOCUMENT CAN CONTAIN ERRORS. Two maps over 100 years apart that were used in answering the query  incorrectly identify the location of the Land of Liberty public house. The 1898 OS map has a pointer which goes right past the pub and points at Waterfield, while Google Maps has the name in the wrong place, while the real location is easily determined from Google Street View.