A Merry Christmas from "Genealogy in Hertfordshire"

Hi All

Enjoy your Christmas and keep up your own researches into family and local history.

Yes I am still here even if my web site and blogs have been rather inactive during 2018 Other matters have meant that I have not been as active on line as I would like. My top priority has been to keep fit and over the year I have relaxed by doing more walking in the wonderful countryside around Tring - and have lost over 10 kg. 

To remain mentally active I have been continuing to work on local history. I have been trying to identify the artist who published the "Karaktus" comic cards in St Albans 110 years ago. The story involves a young and highly innovative artist who sometimes signed his cards "F S" and a whole networks of mainly small short-lived companies (such as the Crown Publishing Company of St Albans). 

Recently I came across firm evidence that "F S" also published some comic cards (such as the one above) under the pseudonym "Dauber" and was also responsible for the Infantastic series of cards of round-faced children. Certain details make it virtually certain that "F S" is Fred Spurgin, who was one of the top comic card artists of the 1910s and 20s.

Over the holiday period I will be actively updating (and correcting) the information I have on the "F S" related comic cards in the light of the latest discoveries. Of course you are welcome to enter the world of Edwardian comic post cards by "F S" at any time as long as you don't mind the occasional "work in progress" warnings.

So relax and enjoy the Christmas break.

Chris

Book: With Cheerful Zeal - Dagnall Street Baptist Church, St Albans

As some of my Gibbs relatives were associated with this church in the 19th century I was delighted to get a copy of this 1999 book, which has been out of print for some time. While the current church was built in 1885 and earlier one was build in 1720 and records go back to 1675.

REVIEW

Other Hertfordshire books on Religion

One of my Hertfordshire Books for Christmas

There was at least one second hand copy advertised online when I posted this blog

BooK: The Toll Roads of Buckinghamshire (and into Hertfordshire)

Part 1 of this newly published volume contains a detailed history of turnpikes while Part 2 gives detailed histories of the 24 turnpikes that existed in Buckinghamshire, including sections that ran into other counties. Of particular interest are two which penetrated deep into Hertfordshire - The Sparrows Herne turnpike (from Bushy, via Berkhamsted and Tring, to Aylesbury) and the Reading to Hatfield turnpike which ran through Rickmansworth and St Albans.

REVIEW

I have also updated the subject page on Turnpikes

One of my Hertfordshire Books for Christmas

St Albans Old Town Hall will soon be a Museum

Restoration and conversion work is well under way

The Same view 100 years ago

More views of the Town Hall in the early 20th century

Steabbens - Butcher of St Albans and Hatfield

Alfred Wren, with the butcher's van owned by Steabbens of St Albans and Hatfield

Hillary has kindly provided the above picture of Alfred Wren, who was born i 1899 and moved to London in 1923 - almost certainly taken after the war - where he had joined the army despite being under age. I have added it to the existing Steabben page

G & W. Steabben's adverts from 1878

If you have any similar early photos which could be added to an existing page on my web site I would love to hear from you.

Insanity in Hertfordshire - More information about the Asylums

Books

I have just received publication details of a book "A Place in the Country: Three Counties Asylum 1860-1999" by Judith Pettigrew, Rory W Reynolds & Sandra Rouse (Hertfordshire Publications, 2017). and because of what happened to my daughters Lucy and Belinda I am very interested the the mental health provision in Hertfordshire, and its history. I hope to get a copy of this book (perhaps as a Xmas present) and when I do I will be adding a review to the Genealogy in Hertfordshire web site - together with a brief history of this interesting asylum, later called Fairfield, which was constructed near the Herts and beds border.

Asylums

Subject
Index

The receipt of details of the book reminded me that the mental health information on my site needed a face-lift and some updating. There is now a new subject button ASYLUMS, and  an associated information page. I have also made some useful updates to the page on the Early Mad Houses in St Albans & Harpenden relating to the private asylum operated from Oster Hills and Harpenden Hall by James Rumball and his son..

from Herts Mercury, 1847

A History of the old Town Hall in St Albans

I have just heard that Chris Green has written a book about the old Town Hall in St Albans and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. Chris is a former director of St Albans Museum and will be signing copies of the book from 12.00 to 1.00 pm on Saturday 2 September, at Waterstones, St Peter’s Street, St Albans. The full colour, fully illustrated book costs £6.99, ISBN 978-0-901194-10-7. It is being published by St Albans & Hertfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society, email publications@stalbanshistory.org.

During his time as director of St Albans Museums Chris Green worked in the old town hall and over the years has studied almost every inch of the building. He has drawn on his extensive knowledge and experience to write this definitive, fully illustrated guide to its history and use over almost 200 years. Original plans for the neo-classical building by architect George Smith are included in the book. The front cover of the book shows George Smith’s original drawing for the building.

The old town hall originally served as a place of local justice, with the local seat of government occupying just one large room. In 1851 the Bribery Commission held court in the building to investigate the ‘cash for votes’ scandal that resulted in St Albans losing its parliamentary representation for a period of time.

* * * * * *

In case you didn't know the original City Museum in Hatfield road closed in 2015 and is due to reopen in the Old Town Hall in Spring 2018

Click Here for some old post card images of the Old Town Hall

Comic Postcard with a link to St Albans

When I am doing research relating to Hertfordshire I frequently create offline pages to my web site to make it easier to transfer online so that it can be shared. Some years ago I discovered that an artist using the name "Karaktus" had published some unusual comic cards in association with a company Crown Publishing Ltd. More recently I discovered that his fellow artist was "F S" and I started to research this artist as well.  Last year I decided I needed to find a more relaxing area of historical research - and what more relaxing than looking for evidence among literally millions of comic post cards.

While there are Hertfordshire connections the research has taken me deep into the problems of publishing postcards in the early 20th century - where there was a massive boom in communication (in some way paralleling the boom in digital phones). Everyone tried to get onto the bandwagon - and while some companies were spectacularly successful far more went bankrupt.

While the research is undoubtedly of more relavant to the post card historian, I have decided to put it online - as even if you are not so interested in the history you might enjoy seeing a large collection of comic post cards from the 1905-1913 period.

See the Comic Cards

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The Cricketers Public Houses of Hertfordshire

Noeleen has written to say I found your site via Google after I could not read an address in a census. It turned out to be ‘The Cricketers’ in Bennington. In 1851 and 1861 census  Frederick  Parkins was the Victualler and a Shoemaker with his wife Sarah. He was just a Shoemaker in 1841 census. In 1861 it is listed as Cricketers Public House, Bennington Road. By 1871 and 1881 census he is Publican and Shoemaker at the Green Dragon in Waltham which his wife Sarah was head of as a Widow in 1891 census. I hope this is of interest to you and I loved the addition of a shoemakers occupation plus I enjoyed reading about Cricketers Pubs on your site, something unknown to me in NZ.

I have added her comment to the page on the Cricketers pubs I first posted in 2006, together with some relevant news items from the British Newspaper Archive.

Cricket

In addition I have added an advert relating to the Cricketers public house in Hitchin from 1836 which records that the associated cricket ground was well established at that date. I have also added a Licencing Day report for St Albans for 1884 which mentions The Cricketers in that city (which unfortunately no longer trades under that name).

Spring Issue of Herts Past and Present

The Spring 2017 issue of Herts Past and Present has just been published by the Hertfordshire Association for Local History.

As always it contains an interesting collection of articles

Hertfordshire men at Passchendale, 1917, by John Cox
In search of "My Lord" Salisbury, by Nicky Webster (about researching and publishing the life of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquis of Salisbury)
William Cecil, 2nd Earl of Salisbury - The Education of a nobleman, by Alan Thomson
'Plenty of Punch and Good Company' - Bringing local history to life about a theatrical production dramatizing the life of John Carrington, farmer of Bramfield
The Enclosure of the Manor of Barnet, 1818, by Susan Flood
Local History Essay Competition - with details of essays on Knebworth, Lemsford and Croxley Green
Report of the 2016 HALH Symposium on Hertfordshire at war through the centuries.
Book Reviews: Watford : A History, by Mary Forsyth; St Albans: Life on the Home Front, 1914-18, edited by Jonathan Mein, Anne Wares and Sue Mann; On Hertford and its Environs: A Portrait in verse of Hertford and the Surrounding Countryside, by Thomas Green (1719-91), edited by Jean Purkis and Philip Sheail.

Dates for the Diary

13 May  - HALH Spring Meeting and AGM, Ware

24 June - Summer Visit, Benington Lordship, Benington

11 November - Symposium: Women of Hertfordshire, Hitchin

More about Hertfordshire Wrench Cards

Allen Warren has written from Canada to say that he is compiling a catalogue of all the post cards by Wrench from the early years of the last century He has provided a list of all the Hertfordshire cards and I have used this to update my Wrench page. He has also provided a copy of this view of the Gates on Cassiobury Park, in Watford.

There are a number of Hertfordshire cards which he has not identified:

Bishops Stortford Nos 6289 and 6291

St Albans 6300 and 6306

Barnet 7757

Hitchin 8835 and 8836

If you can identify any of these cards please let me know (ideally with a digital copy) and I will forward the information to Allan.

19th Century Sport in Hertfordshire

Cricket

The British Newspaper Archive has just loaded copies of the Sporting Life from 1859 to 1909. 

So far I have only had time to do a very quick check to see what is there related to Hertfordshire and found the following entry from May 1860. If you find anything of interest let me, and other readers of this blog, know by commenting below.

'Great War: New Songs and Stories' at St Albans on December 2nd.

What lies underneath Bernards Heath, St Albans

The area of the Fontmell Close as it was in about 1900

I gave my talk "Brick Pits and other old holes" to the St Albans & District Local History Network Annual Conference yesterday, discribing the reasons people had duh holes in Bernards Heath  and the talk is now online at "HOLES"

Some of the slides have details supplementary notes and I had planned to add more today - but have picked up a cold which has gone to my chest (I have asthma) so I decided that plenty of fresh air was better for me than spending hours at the computer. I hope to add the missing notes over the next week or so.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

Following a note from Roger I have looked at my records of William Bennett, who made bricks on the site now occupied by Fontmell Close. William also had brickworks at Harpenden and Hemel Hempstead - and there appears to have been a chalk mine on site at Harpenden and a deep well on site at Hemel Hempstead. As he had lime kilns on Bernards Heath je almost certainly had a similar chalk mine and/or deep well. Failure of the capping of a shaft into a significant chalk mine could easily explain the rather large hole in the road. I have added details to the relevant page of the online text of the talk.

First World War: The Home Front at St Albans

Members of the St Albans Arc & Arc Society's Home Front Project Group have arranged for a pop up stall to be set up in St Albans Central Library on Wednesday 19 October. The aim is to give members of the public the opportunity to chat with the group about our new book, St Albans: Life on the Home Front, 1914-1918.

More Information

H W Lane, Photographer in St Albans for nearly 50 years

Henry William Lane was a photographer in St Peters Street, St Albans from about 1890 until at least 1937 and I have started to collect information about at least his earlier activities. I would be very interested to hear of other examples of his work, .

Click Here for Time line and examples of his work.

Another sexist comic card published in St Albans circa 1908

 This is another example of one of the rather strange and often sexist "comic" post cards published around 1908 by the Crown Publishing Company.  These cards take a very different view of women to the suffragette inspired cards that were also circulating at the time.

A typical card by Karaktus

One series of 30 cards is by an unknown artist who signed himself Karaktus (I am still trying to identify Nos 19 and 21). Some of the unsigned cards may have been by an artist who signed himself "F S" (said by some to be someone I haven't traced called Fred Stone). "F S" cards were published by the London View Company. often in a special "F S Comic Series" until 1908  - when the LVC company closed down.

See other Crown Publishing Co. Cards

Any help in identifying the artists Karaktus and "F S" - or further cards by the Crown Publishing Company would be appreciated.

The Watford Club perform "Les Cloches de Cornville" at St Albans

Having recently posted a picture of a Watford Choir taken by a local photographer, William Coles, in 1923 I was interested to see from the following news item that another Watford Photographer, Frederick Downer, was singing in opera in 1895:

 St. Albans - County Hall.  -  On Wednesday and Thursday, January 30 and 31, the Watford Club gave performances of Les Cloches de Corneville. The Co. were fortunate In having the services of so capable a comedian as Mr. Harry Buck, who took the part of Gobo in excellent style, being very droll. To this gentleman was also entrusted the duties of stage-manager, and he discharged this part of his work in a first-class manner. Mr. Fred Downer as the Marquis de Corncville looked and sang and spoke his lines remarkably well. He was heard to special advantage in the duets with Germaine, in the charming person of Miss Haig. This young lady took the palm of the evening among the lady performers, her acting being good, and she is possessed of a very sweet voice. Miss Buck as Serpolette was also extremely commendable. Praise must be given to Mr. A. J. Cook for his clever portrayal of the miser Gaspard. In the Ghost scene he was excellent. Mr. Richardson as the Bailie slightly overacted his part; otherwise he was good. Grenloheau was looked after in good style by Mr. R. W. Burge, although his acting did not come up to the level of his singing. The Co. all worked hard, and the choruses were given with plenty of go, and in good time. The splendid costumes and wigs used were supplied by Clarkson. The scenery, painted bv Messrs. Downer, Cottam, and Healy, was very good, especially the third scene in act one, painted b\ the latter gentleman, the Market Place in Corneville. A prettier set has seldom been been on these boards. Mr. J. F Gravcs acted as accompanist, and Mr. A. Cottam as musica d 'rector. A special train was run back to Watford each night.

More Information 

Can you identify any of the other people involved?

Early 19th century tenants of Harpsfield Hall, near Hatfield

Further research show that Harpsfield Hall was occupied by William Dearman circa 1800.

He was followed by William Pittman, who died in 1813.- but his will was badly worded and there was a 12 year long case in Chancery.

John Sergius Fothergill's sister married into the Gape family of St Albans (who owned the Hall) and he died in 1836.

I have aldo added more information about how Harpsfield Hall Farm was run later in the 19th century.

More Information

St Albans - Life on the Home Front, 1914-18

Book Launch at Waterstones, St Albans, 15th September.

Having written The London Gunners come to Town in 1995, which describes what happened in Hemel Hempstead when it became a garrison town I am looking forward to readinging this book, which includes pictures I have provided.

Much has been written about the men who left to fight in the First World War but what was life really like for those left behind on the Home Front? A bustling market town profoundly touched by the war, St Albans is the perfect place of which to ask this question, thanks in part to the survival of exceptionally rich archives of records from the period. 

In 1914 St Albans had a population of over 24,000 people. Within days of the outbreak of war, with all the emotion and upheaval that entailed, the town also had to adjust to the arrival of more than 7,000 soldiers for whom billets needed to be found. This book considers the social changes that took place as St Albans became a garrison town for the first time in centuries.

In the early decades of the twentieth century St Albans had a diverse economy. Along with the established straw-hat-making factories and silk mills, other light industry had been introduced more recently, notably printing and clothing manufacture. There was contrasting prosperity and poverty, with slum housing conditions for many of the workers. As taxes increased and the Army ceaselessly looked to recruit more men, every enterprise fought to survive. The registers and minutes of the St Albans Military Service Tribunal, which, unusually, were not destroyed after the war, allowed the authors to explore the conflicting needs of the military and local businesses. From early 1916, the Tribunal heard applications from 1,050 men for exemption from conscription, including 23 conscientious objectors.

As the war went on, maintaining a regular and constant supply of food for the nation became ever more challenging. Shortages and complaints about unfair distribution led to the introduction of rationing in 1918 and queues became a daily fact of life. How was St Albans fed?

A team of 21 historians have contributed to this book, working under the auspices of the St Albans & Hertfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society. Established in 1845, the Society is dedicated to promoting interest in the rich and diverse history of the city and surrounding district.

Also available from University of Hertfordshire Press after publication.