Prince of Wales visits Panshanger and Hertford in 1874

The Library at Panshanger

Old News

In 1874 the Prince of Wales visited Panshanger and he and some other gentlemen spent part of the time in shooting, and had excellent sport, bagging in one day no fewer than 760 pheasants, besides partridges, rabbits, and hares. The Princess planted a chestnut tree in the grounds in commemoration of the visit. The visit (which included the town of Hertford) was described by The Graphic which printed engravings based on photographs taken by Elsden, of Hertford.

While doing the update I added a press cutting dating the opening of Elsden's Mill Bridge studios to 1872 - providing a benchmark for dating his old photographs, and also an advert from 1876.

The Hertfordshire Polo Club Activities in 1884

Old News

While searching online I found a page of the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (27th September 1884) full of pictures of the Hertfordshire Polo Club tournament held at Panshanger. It is being sold by prints-4-all on ebay and if you want to see the full page of pictures visit the advert before it is sold. I decided to look at the Herts Mercury to see what it says and found the pictures show a meeting at Panshanger between the Herts Polo Club, the Royal Field Artillery Polo Club and the West Essex Polo Club in September 1884. I also located details of four other meetings including one with the Cambridge University Polo Club.

Further details (including the full text of the September meeting and references to the other meeting - together with some thumbs from the advert.)

More important books by the Herts Records Society

Books

The Hertfordshire Records Society selects important manuscript records and transcribes them. While each volume may only deal with a limited area it is selected as a good example of that kind of document - and may often include information which is not available from other sources. Members of the society get copies of the books as part of their subscription, and many of the older books are available to non-member at a bargin price of £6.00 a volume. I have just updated my web page on the Society and its publications and posted reviews on the two most recent publications

The Receipt Book of Baroness Elizabeth Dimsdale, c1800

Baroness Elizabeth Dimsdale decided, in about 1800, to record a large number of what we now call recipes and this have been transcribes, and listed to bring similar recipes together. The is a long introduction which look at who Elizabeth Dimsdale was - and what the book tells us about her life and social contacts.

Humphry Repton's Red Books of Panshanger and Tewin Water, 1799-1800

Humphry Repton was a landscape gardener whose red books described his design of a new estate - and this volume contains reproductions of his proposals for developing the landscape around the houses of Panshanger (Hertingfordbury) and Tewn Waters (Tewin).

Can you trace your ancestors back to the time this tree was an acorn?

Trees

The Great Oak at Panshanger, by Thomas Medland

The Panshanger Oak was so impressive that in 1814  Thomas Medland painted it as a fine example of an oak tree and later published engravings of it. In 1841 Queen Victoria visited it to admire its immense size and the surpassing beauty of its growth, for which it has not its rival in the Kingdom. And it is still standing, the oldest maiden oak in the country, and is believed to be at least 600 years old.

For more about its history (including extracts from old newspapers) and recent pictures, see The Panshanger Oak.

Panshanger, Hertingfordbury, near Hertford

Panshanger House, Hertford - posted 1905

I have posted the above post card on the Panshanger page, together with another showing the River Mimram at Panshanger - with higher resolution images available. If you would like to know more about Panshanger, tell me and I will add information about the house and some of the people who lived there