Stevenage pages upgraded on my Web Site

Stevenage FHS

Stevenage was on of the Hertfordshire Towns which had been rather neglected in recent years and I have completely restructured the pages to make the information about the town much more accessible. In addition I had made higher definition images of some of the pictures and added new external links, including one to the Stevenage Family History Society. 

This change will make it possible for me to add even more pictures and information in future, and I have about a dozen pictures, etc, in the queue waiting to be added.

Visit the new Stevenage Pages

Interesting Local History from an Estate Agent's Account Book

Last Wednesday I gave a talk about this interesting 1850s account book to the Tring & District Local History & Museum Society and all the slides are now available at:

www.bit.ly/BrownAccountBook

You will find the menu on the left gives you access to

• A page describing the Account Book
• The Calendar - which in turn allows you to view all 283 folios
• William Brown's A-Z Customer Index
• The slides for the talk (to see additional notes press the [A] button)

Bearing in mind the recent news about the Conservative Party not properly declaring their election expenses one of the slides that cause much interest was:

The 1851 election was caused because one of the MPs was unseated because too much "bribery" money had been spent wining and dining prospective voters... 

I think all the audience were distressed that historically valuable documents relating to the history of the town had ended up on ebay, and that some key documents have ended up with unknown buyers. It is possible that other less attractive looking but historically important documents may have been rubbished. At least the account book will end up in the museum collection - and the information it contains is available to all online.

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Two areas are still being worked on. The Calendar uses the headings on every page but only some pages have a supplementary list of personal names and places and it is hoped to complete this over the next few months. In addition I have still to add supplementary notes to some of the slides.

Three further books - the minute books of the Tring Agricultural Society - will also be passed the the museum when I have provided more online information about them.

In addition only a few pages have been studied in depth, and if you are interested in following up the history behind any folio (including those relating to people and places over the boundary in Buckinghamshire) do not hesitate to contact me.

Policy: DNA Testing and the Genealogy in Hertfordshire Web Site

Recently I have had a few queries which involve DNA testing and this raises the question of how such matters are best handled on my web site. Your views would be welcome.

Way back in the 1980s (well before the World Wide Web came into its existence) I was involved with the problem of "data protection" and the implications of the international exchange of information about people and what they did, using email and bulletin boards. I even had one of my computer articles on the subject reprinted in a specialist legal journal!

Prize Fighting on No Mans Land in 1833

Following a useful correction from John I have added some useful references to prize fighting and a brief extract from a lengthy press description of the fight, which led to the death of Simon Bryne.

In the five following rounds, both fought in a wild and scrambling manner, equally exhausting to each; and in the 49th round Burke, who had summoned all his remaining vigour to his aid, rattled away with such fury, that Simon at last went down weaal. Here was another change - and Burke again became the favourite. From henceforth to the 99th round, repeated changes took place.

More information on No Mans Land

First World War casualties from Ludgrove School

The Military

Hilary is researching the musician George Jerrard Wilkinson whose First World War obituary says had been a music teacher at Ludgrave school, (then near Barnet) sometime between 1908 and 1914.  I am unable to confirm this (can you help?) but decided to see what I could find about the pupils (mostly from prominent families) from the school who had died or other wise contributed. 

I was interested to see that one of the teachers at the school, Henry Peter Hansell, became personal tutor to the sons of King Edward VII - especially as more recently both Prince William and Prince Harry went to the school in its "new" location in Berkshire.

The former pupils and teachers who I identified (I am sure there were many more) were: 

Nigel F. E. Anson

Victor Annesley Barrington-Kennett

Basil H. Barrington-Kennett

 Aubrey Hampden Barrington-Kennett

Wilfrid Stanley Bird

William Arthur Derrick Eley

Richard Hallwatt

James Collier Foster Harter

Albert Edward George Arnold Keppel

George Ronald Lane

William Archie Arbuthnot Middleton

W. L. O. Parker

George Harry Thornton Ross

Richard Sutton

More information about the school and its pupils.

The 1850s Account Book of William Brown, of Tring

On 18th May the Tring & District Local History & Museum Society will be holding their A.G.M.in the Tring Parish Hall at 8pm - and I will be giving the talk. The official introduction reads:

William Brown's client account general ledger contains a wealth of information relating to property in and around Tring, including the sale of houses and farms, valuations for probate, etc., relating to local families. A significant part of the volume deals with the management of the Tring Park Estate. Dr. Chris Reynolds is an amateur historian and member of the Society. He has lived in Tring for over 50 years, and currently runs the "Genealogy in Hertfordshire" website. This site includes many pages on Tring including a digitised copy of William Brown's account book.

 Over the next three weeks I will be preparing the talk - which will be made available on the main web site, with supporting notes, after the event. Between now and then I will be posting some advanced "publicity" information on this blog. In addition you can go online and browser through the accounts and if there are any which particularly interest you (maybe they concern a property or individual you have been researching) add a comment below and I may be able to include a mention in the talk, or add notes to the web site after the talk.

After the talk the Account Book will be passed to the Museum for safekeeping - and will possibly appear in the document display cabinet.

Two more "Crown Series" comic cards from St Albans circa 1908

I have now located two more of the unusual comic cards that were being published by the Crown Publishing Company in St Albans in about 1908/9. I am still trying to identify the artists involved. One signed his name Karaktus and many of the others are in the style of "F S" who published many comic cards for the London View Company which closed in 1908.

Some Early (1850s) Hertford Photographers.

I have updated the information on some of the earliest photographers in Hertford.

The Monson brothers visited Hertford on two occasions in 1853. I have added further information to show how they were related and their later careers as photographers.

Thomas Vipond was another travelling photographer who visited Hertford in 1859/60. I have now discovered he continued as a travelling photographer for some time, based in Aylesbury, but later settling in Grantham. In 1864 one of Thomas's Aylesbury portraits was used by police to try and trace earlier activities of a pickpocket in other towns, which seems to be a very early example of the use of photographs in detective work.

In 1857 James Craddock set up a studio in Hertford with Hart (I have still not been able to identify Hart) but within a year the studio had passed to Arthur Elsden and James had "vanished" - except that I now know that he became a significant photographer in Simla, India, and that he, or one of his sons, was taking photoghraphs in England in 1880,
Arthur Elsden took over from James Craddock in 1858 and I have acquired an interesting carte de viste take in connection with a play "Payment on Demand" put on by the Hertford Grammar School in 1874. It shows "Vincent Elsden" but it is not certain which of the Elsden brothers, Arthur or James, it was. (Arthur Vinsent Elsden continued the Hertford photographic business after his father died.)

I would be interested to know of any surviving pictures from the 1850s taake by the above - or any other Hertfordshire photographer. Any earlier examples of photographs being used for detective work could also be of interest.

The Cost of printing Post Cards circa 1905

Thridgould was a major post card printing company - and the above price list shows how much it cost to get 500 copies of a post card published in about 1905.

One of the feature of the post card boom at the beginning of the 20th century was that many firms printed too many - and went out of business. Others found they had lines that did not sell well. In addition to printing cards Thridgould also obtained some of these surplus cards and did them up in assorted bundles at a knock down price.

For more information on this interesting firm see THRIDGOULD.

I have a problem ... ...

 I really need to get my Hertfordshire collection of books, postcards, maps, et., into order - and every now and again I have a new start to get things done - and not only do I not have enough shelves - but I don't have enough wall on which I could fit the shelves ...