Three New Local Books from the Tring Local History Museum

The Story of Wilstone - by John Painter

The Rothschilds of Tring
by Tim Amsden

In November I brought two newly published books The Story of Wilstone by John Painter and Three Tring Industries by Wendy Austin at Tring's Local History Museum, and a small but informative booklet about The Rothschilds of Tring by Tim Amsden. I had intended to review them before Christmas. The web pages and sample illustrations are ready but the review texts will have to follow next year.

Three Tring Industries by Wendy Austin

The Rothschilds and the RAF Connection

Halton House - The Seat of Alfred Charles de Rothschild

In the 19th century the Rothschild family family settled in the Vale of Aylesbury - extending into Hertfordshire in the Tring area. One of their slpendid houses, built by Alfred Charles de Rothschild was at Halton, just over the county boundary into Buckinghamshire.

When the First World War broke out Alfred made his couse and grounds available to the army. The initial army camp was used to train soldiers in Kitchiner's new army, but soon became a base for what was to become the Royal Air Force.

Halton Army Camp in 1914

There will be an open days on Sunday 10th September between 10 am and 4 pm. Halton House (now the Officers Mess, RAF Halton)  will be open  providing a rare opportunity to see the interior of Halton House, built by Alfred de Rothschild in 1883, a lasting reminder of Victorian decorative taste.In addition a  shuttle bus will run between Halton House, the Trenchard Museum, (where more can be learnt about the history of the RAF Station and RAF’s Apprentice Scheme), and the James McCudden Flight Heritage Centre.  Transport will be provided between Halton House and the reconstructed First World War trenches.

Further details about the house can be found at http://www.haltonhouse.org.uk 

Edward Barber, V.C., is killed - and Tring News on 17/4/1915

Extracts from the Bucks Herald of 17th April, 1915

Edited from British Newspaper Archive
Previous week ~~~~ Tring News Index ~~~~ Next Week

News has reached Tring of the deaths of Edward Barber, V.C., and Frank Marcham. Lieut.-General Sir Edward Hutton's letter about is leaving the 21st Division is published, and fifteen soldiers are confirmed by the Bishop of St Albans. Arthur Macdonald writes to the paper on the army's need for more sand-bags and William Mead, of Tring Flour Mill, agrees to be a collecting point.  At Tring Park Cricket Club's AGM it was said they would be having a reduced fixture list and would not be employing any permanent ground staff - and would reduce the subscription accordingly. It was agreed that the rents paid by the Tring Tennis and Bowling clubs would be reduced if they also reduced their subscriptions. The Easter festival normally held by the Church Girls' Union had been cancelled due to the War.  At the Easter Vestry Meeting the Vicar, Rev. H. Francis mentioned with pride the towns role it the war, with 298 being on active service, of which 79 had been members of the Church Lads' Brigade, with 5 having been Boy Scouts. At the National level local farmers may well have been unhappy about the Government's arrangements for buying hay. The death of Lord Rothschild, reported two weeks earlier, featured in a number of reports. He had been the president of the Tring Agricultural Society and there were many tributes at the meeting of their committee. He had actively helped the Tring Park Cricket Club, although his son Walter was the club president. Hew was also briefly mentioned in the vicar's report given at the Vestry Meeting. However much of the long report at this meeting provides an interesting review of the town during the previous year. Other news included the wedding at Wigginton of Miss Petronella Trickey of Champneys (the home of Mr Alexander Marc) and Mr, Thomas J. N. Perkins, headmaster of Helensburgh School, the high prices at William Brown's fat stock sale, and William Rodwell having been prosecuted for riding a motor bkie and side car with inadequate lights. Perhaps because of the other news there was less church news than usual. Surnames mentioned this week:  Bagnall Bailey Baker Baldwin Barber Barton Bathurst Bedford Beech Bishop Brackley Bright Brown Bull Burnham Butcher Carr Carter Clarke Clissold Coker Cole Cox Crossland Dawe De Fraine Dickens Elliman Fells Finch Flowers Forestier-Walker Fountaine Francis Fulks Fulley, Gibbs Grange Gregory Hayes Heading Hedges Hardern Horwood Houchen Howe Huckvale Hull Hutton Jenney Kidstone Kingham Kirk Lepper Macdonald Marc Marcham Mash Mathews Mead Miller Newman Newton Pearce Perkins Pond Poulton Pratt Reeve Rodwell Rothschild Rowe Smeathman Smith Steadman Trickey Turner Tyler Vaisey Waterton Williams

Herts Regiment Casualties from Tring - Commander of 21st Division Steps down

Tring in War Time, 1914-1919

News reached Tring of casualties among local soldiers from the Hertfordshire Regiment.  Four (Marcham, Rodwell, Bruce and Barber) had been in a stable which was hit by a shell. Frank Marsham was killed and Fred Rodwell was badly injured and is now in a military hospital in Camberwell. Elsewhere on the Front Archibald Bishop had been wounded. Lieut.-General Sir Edward Hutton,commander of the 21st Division, based in Tring, has stepped down, and soldiers billeted in the town attended a Sunday parade on Easter Day, athletic sports, and yet more concerts. The coroner heard of the sad death of Miss Eliza Barber, who used to scavenge in dustbins, and who died of starvation. She was found to have cash and a bank balance totalling over £200. G. Stratford had take over Goodson's blacksmiths in the High Street while clover seed could be purchased from Church Farm, Little Gaddesden. I have also included an advert picturing one of Lord Rothschild's shire horses. I have not included the full texts referring to Lord Rothschild's funeral and a further obituary, or the account of the Conservative Club's AGM, but have extracted the long list of people from Tring (including many estate employees) who caught a train to attend the funeral but who, due to delays on the railway, only arrived at the end of the ceremony. I have also extracted the names of the Conservative Club committee. Edited from British Newspaper Archive Previous week ~~~~ Tring News Index

Death of Lord Rothschild - and News of Hertfordshire Regiment in April 1915

Tring in War Time, 1914-1919

Undoubtedly the big news of the week was the death of Lord Rothschild - and there was a very extensive obituary. There were reports of the  Hertfordshire Territorials in action at the front, including the way Sergeant Raven had rescued an injured officer officer who had lain where he fell for four days. There was only the routine news of concerts and church services for the soldiers billeted in the town, except that two deserters from Tring appeared before the Petty Sessions in Winslow. William Brown held the Easter Fat Stock Show (detailed report) and also advertised the sale of 600 books from the Mechanics' Institute Library, the closure of which was announced last week. Extracts from the Bucks Herald of 3rd April, 1915 Edited from British Newspaper Archive Previous week ~~~~ Tring News Index

Old Tring News - POW returns to England - Soldiers die in road accident - more urinals requried

    Extracts from the Bucks Herald of 27th February, 1915

Military

Compared with previous weeks there is more news about individual soldiers. Captain Edmund S. W. Tidswell, son of the previous vicar of Tring, has been mentioned in dispatches. Private F. Birch (Herts Regiment) of Wigginton, has been wounded. Private W. G. Mustill (1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers), of the Cow Roast Lock, Tring, had been earlier wounded and captured by the Germans, but he was part of a prisoner exchange, which he describes, and is now in a London Hospital. Also from Wigginton Harold Gurney is still in hospital at Oxford, while Albert Baker has returned to duty after coming home on sick leave.

Among the forces stationed locally the 15th Platoon, D Company, 8th Lincolnshire Regiment sent a wreath to the funeral of their late officer, Lieut. Wm. Crabtree, who was killed in a taxi-cab near Tring a fortnight ago. An Inquest is to be held on Private White and Thomas of the 12th Northumberland Fusiliers who were found dying by the side of the road at Aston Clinton - a matter which makes Captain's Icke's letter about who had done the fastest route march seem rather insignificant.

The number of troops in the area affects the provision of public services, and in nearby Wendover there was a discussion about the provision of public urinals. The Ruri-Decanal Conference at Berkhamsted (attended by many Church of England ministers and lay members) discussed the provision on intersession services, while the people of Tring were warned that the street lighting might have to be turned off because of the shortage of coal  (in part because so many former miners were now training at Tring?)

On the home front Tring was getting ready for a council by-election following the death of Dr Brown and William Smith, builder, and Edward Wright wrote letter to the paper addressing the electorate.Jack Grange, the son of Herbert Grange, the farmer at Grove Farm, was found to have advanced cancer while James Clark, a Post Office pensioner,  had a successful operation at the West Herts Hospital, at Hemel Hempstead. Both Lord Rothschild, of Tring Park, and J G Williams, of Pendley, won top awards at the Shire Horse Show at Islington. On a more mundane level Percy Mead, farmer of Gubblecote had mangolds for sale.

Surnames this week: Bagnall, Baker, Beal, Bedford, Beech, Birch, Boswall, Brackley, Brown, Bull, Cartwright, Cattell, Clark, Cockburn, Crabtree, Craufurd, Dale, Eccles, Evetts, Ewing, Farran, Field, Finch, Francis, French, Gaussen, Gilbert, Grange, Greey, Gurney, Halsey, Hart-Davies, Hastings, Hilderley, Hodgson, Holland, Houchen, Houseman, Hutton, Icke, Lea-Wilson, Lendrum, Ling, Moore, Lowe, Mead, Muntz, Mustill , Norris, North, Penny, Pope, Ridley, Rolfe, Rothschild, Smith, Smith-Dorrien, Spark, Thomas, Thring, Tidswell, Ward, Weston, White, Williams, Wood, Wright.

Genealogy in Hertfordshire web site on ITV

Watch program on ITV (for limited period only)

Last Thursday ITV showed a program on Champneys wich included a very brief discussion about the Rothchilds owning it (with some errors) and at the same time showed some pictures on a tablet computer including the above image showing kangaroos in the grounds of Tring Park. These come from the page on the Museum on the main web site.

Click here to see the page on the Museum Walter Rothschild established at Tring.

Click here to see the page on Tring Park

Click here to see the page on Champneys.

Baron Rothschild's Staghounds - Pictures by J T Newman

Hunting

Lord Rothchild's Staghounds on the Chiltern Hills

I have updated the page on Hunting in Hertfordshire by adding four post cards, taken by the photographer J. T. Newman of Berkhamsted. They show the staghounds run by Baron Rothschild of Tring Park. All were published in about 1905. Interestingly one was published by the national post card publisher, Valentine, in their "hunting series".

Exploring the History of Hastoe House, near Tring.

The Account Book

Folio 105 of William Brown's Account Book  records that a Mrs Chesterman asked him to let Hastoe House and value some furniture.

Why?

William Brown also managed the property affairs for the Rev. James Williams, who lived in Tring Park. Folio 68 shows that in April 1852 the house was advertised to let. In May Mr Chesterman agreed to rent the house at £80 per year and on 16th of June Mr Chesterman brought the furniture in the house for £120. Ubfortunately he died on 1st July, 1852 - so clearly did not have much time to enjoy Hastoe House.  William Brown's Account Book shows that the Chesterman executors continued to pay the rent until 1856 so I decided to see what happened to Mrs Hannah Chesterman - only to find that in 1853 she married William Brown's brother James!

I was hooked - and I decided to see what I could find out about the other tenants. This was made possible because all the 19th century editions of the Bucks Herald (published in nearby Aylesbury) are available on the British Newspaper Archive. A certain amount of intelligent deduction was needed - helped by the fact that Hastoe House was the only property in the Hastoe area which was posh enough to employ resident domestic servants. 

The many tenants included Baron Rothschild in 1843 (he probably used it as a hunting lodge), the son in law of the Bishop of Chichester, a "retired squatter" (not what you might think), and William Brown's business partner. It seems that another tenant, a William Burns, died shortly after taking the tenancy. The only significant gap between 1841 and 1901 is that I was unable to discover the name of the tenant who was resident at the time of the 1861 census - as only their domestic staff are recorded.

For full details, including copies of the relevant sections of the account book, various press adverts, maps, and two modern views see CHESTERMAN & Hastoe House, Tring, circa 1838 - 1901

It should be pointed out that it was possible to find so much out, comparatively quickly, because Hastoe House was the only "gentry" accommodation in Hastoe, which itself had a very small population. 

Adult Baptism, Confirmation & Holy Commumion

Tring

It is important to remember that not all Church of England baptisms were infant baptisms as this interesting document shows. Doris Sutherland Thomas was born in 1891 but was not baptised until four days before she was confirmed by the Bishop of Barking in 1910. She lived at the Mill House, Brook Street, Tring.

On the main web site (Walter Thomas, Mill House, Tring)  I have posted some information about the house and her family.

Silk Mills

Walter Thomas was born in the Scilly Islands, the son of a shipwright, and he became a marine engineer in Kent. Meanwhile Lord Rothschild was making changes in Tring and closed the Silk Mill - converting it to become his estate management department. He employed Walter Thomas as an engineer, who was responsible for supply electricity to Tring Park and became estate engineer.

A very busy time - News & Updates for Mid January 2013

Not only have I been busy with normal posts, after the break for Christmas - but there have been a lot of other things going on . Some of the following brief notes relate to comments, etc., made last year which have only just surfaced as unreported in an attempt to clear part of my 2012 mailbox.

There have been a number of improvement to familysearch recently and if you search for your non-conformist ancestors you may be offered a link to the BMDregisters.co.uk web site (associated with TheGenealogist.co.uk site), where you can see (for a fee) the original registers.

I have updated my Hertfordshire Wills page to include a direct link to the National Archives' very useful online guide to Wills and probate.

The WayBack Machine has been undergoing changes and now covers 240,000,000,000 URL and you can search the Web as it was from 1996 to about a month ago.This can be useful in chasing old genealogy and local history pages which have "vanished", sometimes because the person who maintained them has died, and their account closed. See latest blog report.

Tewin

Anonymous comments that "Henry Cowper married his cousin Maria Judith Cowper daughter of John Cowper DD Rector of Berkhamsted. Thus the poet and hymnist William Cowper (God works in mysterious ways, etc.) was his brother in law." Henry Cowper of Tewin (main site: Tewin Water).

When Kathy recently asked about James Thomson (born Scotland, from Watford in the First World War) I concentrated on the Hertfordshire end of the story. Anthony has now located a James Thomson who fits the bill, and who had an earlier Army career - See  James THOMSON, Watford, World War 1. Do you know any other soldiers with Hertfordshire connections who was on the HMT Prince Edward when she was torpedoed on the way to Gallopoli?

The spider which indexes my web site every Friday night to support the Search facility reported that at the beginning of 2013 it was indexing 4095 text pages  (This excluded my many index pages and menus).

Kevin Pangbourn added a comment to  A Rothschild funded trip to Canada (main site: PANGBORN, Tring, 1868-1906) about Frederick Pangbourn.

Dave Bower has written to add some reminiscences to the story of the Briden family of bakers of Bengeo.

John Martin is researching long-lost Hertfordshire Youth Hostels at Thundridge, Bishops Stortford, Buntingford and Puckeridge and I have provide him with high resolution digitized image of Mill House, Back Street, Thundridge (a Youth Hostel between 1931 and 1935) for the YHA archives which are now held at Birmingham University (online provisional catalogue) 

Anthony suggests the possibly mis-recorded name "Zigner" in census returns, reported on Israel Loveridge, Romany & Knife Grinder, should probably be "Elijah".

I had a surprising number of visitors a few days ago. Within a few hours of posting Census Humour the post was visited by 180 people! I was very surprised until I realised that the post mention a suspected dog called "Diddy Daddylum" and there is an American Rapper known by the name of Diddy!

I also got several other messages, which will not be reported here unless the sended provides more information. However it is perhaps worth commenting one was an example of a common problem among the people who ask questions - the inability to distinguish between HerTfordshire and HerEfordshire.

Subjects "C"

Clocks &
Watches

I have progressed with the task of adding the new format picture buttons to selected pages and, for example I have created new picture buttons for clocks and watches and cycling. See Subjects "C" for how this will be shown in the indexes.

I have also extended the Men at work page and made more links to it (but many more need making!)

Donations for the Mentally Ill of Hertfordshire

So far this year £80 has been donated electronically including a payment made directly to the charity rather than through the special collecting box. Thanks to those responsible.

Some more about Halton

Halton is just over the county boundary into Buckinghamshire, and paid an important role in the First World War as it hosted a military camp which trained pilots - and the camp is now RAF Halton. I have now added two new post cards. The first shows the Wendover arm of the Grand Union Canal  at Halton which records the fact that Lord Kitchener's New Army is based on Alfred Rothschild's estate - so must have been published circa 1915. 

The same view in 2009

The second is a view of part of Wendover Woods (where I regularly used to take my dog Franci for a walk) in which some of the camp huts can be seen between the trees.

Pannonica Rothschild & Tring Park

Last September I posted details of the book Nica's Dream, The life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness, by David Kastin. Now Hannah Rothschild has just published a book The Baroness: The search for Nica, the rebellious Rothschild. and I note that the Daily Telegraph Review includes the following:

Appropriately enough for someone who would live by night and be drawn to the flames, Pannonica was named after a moth: her father, Charles, was an entomologist and the childhood home, Tring Park in Aylesbury – one of the “huge three-dimensional calling cards” built by the Rothschilds to announce their arrival – also housed her uncle Walter’s private collection of stuffed kangaroos, whales and giant tortoises. Nica would later live in what Hannah calls “an animated version” of Tring Park, when she shared her modest New Jersey house with 300 or so cats.

Tring Park is not in Aylesbury, Bucks, it is in Tring, Herts, and one of things that distinguishes it from the other Rothschild houses in the area is that it is not "one of the three dimensional calling cards built by the Rothschilds to announce their arrival."  It was a much older house which was given what could be considered a comparatively conservative upgrade. I don't know if these errors are in the book or in the review but such inaccuracies in facts which are trivially easy to check give me no confidence in the reliability of the book. It will be interesting to see if the Daily Telegraph publishes a correction.

Louis Wain's visit to Tring in 1895

The Gallery at Walter Rothschild's Museum

Louis Wain, the artist renown for his drawing of cats, visited Tring in 1895 and wrote a long article in The Windsor Magazine entitled The Hon. Walter Rothschild's Pets: A Visit to Tring Museum, It starts with a short description to the town, ending up at the museum, a detailed description of the exhibits, and information on the "zoo" of wild animals kept by Walter Rothschild at Tring Park.

The article includes over 20 illustrations, most of which are drawings by Louis Wain,

Sumatran Rhinocerous

The Museum is now part of the Natural History Museum and the two galleries described in the article are still there - together with many of the exhibits.

A Rothschild funded trip to Canada

Elizabeth's query about PANGBORN, Tring, 1868-1906 raised a lot of interesting points - some of which could be relevant to many who emigrated to Canada from Hertfordshire in the early 20th century. There can be little doubt that a book published by a Tring farmer will have encouraged many to emigrate, in some cases help by Rothschild money,

In the case of the Pangborn family there is the question of why Frederick returned to England leaving all but the youngest children in Canada - and who was the "Mrs Pangborn" who is listed on the ship manifest. 

Nica's Dream and Tring Park

I have just learnt that the book Nica's Dream, The life and Legend of the Jazz Baroness, By David Kastin has just been published. So what, you may ask, is the connection between a book which will appeal to Jazz enthusiasts and this web site?

In fact Kathleen Annie Pannonica (Nica) Rothschild (1913–1988), was the daughter of Nathaniel Charles and Rozsika Rothschild, and after her father's death, Nica and her siblings moved into Tring Park Mansion, where she spent a good portion of her childhood.

Emus in Tring Park

The book contains a picture of the emus in Tring Park, from this web site, and it is perhaps worth reminding readers of this blog that I can supply digital copies of many of the older engravings and post card images, and any of the modern photographs I have taken myself.