Rural Relaxation - Bookham Common

Mother and two recently hatched Coot on Upper Pond, Bookham Common

Marsh Marigold

Today I went to Bookham, in Surrey, for a pleasant family meal, and in the afternoon I visited the Common and walked across The Plain to the Ponds.

In recent years there have been significant changes to make the ponds (which had been neglected and were silting up) far more attractive to wild life. The Isle of Wight pond was in the process of being restored, with the trees round the edge cut back and the island cleared of trees. Looked very untidy but in a few years it will be a great improvement.

Some more Post Cards

I have added a number of old post cards from early 20th century St Albans, including some more comic cards by Karaktus of the Crown Publishing Co. Two of the cards carry the titles of popular songs of 1909.

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.

Charles Lamb and Hertfordshire

Charles Lamb in 1825

Books on
Hertfordshire

Charles Lamb, who with his sister Mary, wrote Lamb's Tales from Shakespere had many connections with Hertfordshire. The Hitchin historian, Reginald Hine, wrote an very readable book Charles Lamb and His Hertfordshire which includes plates and many line drawings - a significant number being views of Hertfordshire. I have added a sample text and a brief review of the book, and also details of Button Snap, Cherry Green, Westmill, near Buntingford, where he lived for a time.

The book was first published in 1949, and republished in 1973 - so there a plenty of secondhand copies available online at reasonable prices.

[I have used the opportunity of this review to update the pages on Westmill (including details of the farm at Wakeley) and Reginald Hine.

A Brief Personal Note ...

Many thanks to all of you that have responded to my post Future Plans for this Site - and if you still haven't commented yet please do so NOW. Every comment helps - as it gives me a better idea of who has been using the site - and what they get out of it. It is clear that in the long term I am going to downsize my commitment and that for the next few months I need to concentrate on a backlog of other activities. For instance, as I write this blog the sun is shining - and a climbing plant at the back of the house needs urgent attention - before it decides it is too heavy and pulls away from the wall!

So for the time being I am restricting myself to one day a week on "genealog key bashing" so that I can sort other things out. I will be back next weekend as during the past week the problem I had with updating the web site has been rectified, and there are other updates in the pipeline - but they are not quite ready so they will have to wait until next weekend.

Getting started on your family history

Help Desk

St Albans

The "Ask Chris" facility is really designed for people who have already carried out some research on their family and are familiar with the online census returns, civil registration and parish registers - and have hit a brick wall. However I occasionally get queries from people who appear to be just starting out, and in some cases their "Brick wall" is between them and the local library or bookshop - and they haven't yet discovered an elementary guide on the subject.   If I have time (and I often do not), I will quickly check out the key online records (to ensure that the the information can be found) and then point them in the right direction, including a few details to encourage them to look for themselves. If you are a beginner and want to know the kind of answer you are likely to get why not see what I have said to James, whose main query centered on a marriage that took place at Sandridge in 1833 between William Thompson and Elizabeth Woollatt - the couple then living in St Albans for the rest of their lives. 

The point is that if you let other people do all the easy stuff for you, you will never learn how to do it for yourself. As a result you will come to a dead halt as soon as the way forward is not immediately obvious. This is why the motto of the main web site is:

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.

Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime

Researching a Public House - When did the Tyrant's Arms become the Alford Arms - and why

Help Desk

Lewis is interested in the history of the Alford Arms and I was able to fill in some details from the 1841-1861 census and some newspaper accounts on the British Newspaper Archive - see Alford Arms, Frithsden, mid 19th century for full details. However I was unable to find out why it was called the Tyrant's Arms in 1851 (and possibly for long before that) or who the tyrant was.  In addition I was unable to date the fire that apparently led to a rebuild in Victorian times. Can any of you help by commeting below.

The Alford Arms is buried in the countryside behind Berkhamsted, and I have heard the food is excellent. The hamlets of Frithsden, and nearby Nettleden, are harder to research than many places because of the parish and former county boundaries. Even if the pub you are researching is somewhere else my answer to Lewis may give you some ideas as to where information may turn up.

The house and hospitals on Oster Hills, St Albans

Help Desk

Normally I do not answer questions relating to people and events after the end of the First World War, but this question, from Roger, relates to a building, Oster House, which is already mentioned on my web site, and I am also interested because of my mental health work, which meant I helped inspect a temporary mental health ward that was on the site in the 1990s. The relevant part of Roger's question reads:

My great grandfather George Henry Webb practiced dentistry in St Albans and also at a free hospital in St Pancras. After he died in 1932 Annie Fensome continued to live at 58 Lattimer Road and used the name Webb. She died in Oster House Hospital on 28 February 1946. Presumably this was not regarded as a Work House as probate shows she left the sum of £2,453 2s 9d to someone called Lizzie Smith wife of a John Smith London.

The medical history of Oster House, and the adjoining Oster Hills Workhouse site, is complex, and I can only highlight a few key events:

Was your ancestor in a Benefit Club?

Benefit clubs, which became common in Victorian times, were a way that working class families could put a few pennies away for use in a rainy day. Philip Wray has posted an excellent article on his Preston website - which is a very interesting read - even if your ancestor did not come from Preston, Herts.

Rural Relaxation - A Jack Snipe at College Lake

A Jack Snipe at College Lake Nature Reserve, near Tring
(at least that is what I was told by another bird watcher at the time
Can anyone confirm this?)

Over the Easter period I have been very busy with family and other matters - which have kept me away from the computer. The activities have included two visits to College Lake with my Canon Powershot SX40 HS which allowed me to take some wonderful bird photographs no that I am getting used to it. (I still haven't found time to read the manual to try out the manual features - which in some cases should allow me to get even better shots.)

Chaffinch drinking at the "Window in the Wood" hide, College Lake

While the SX40 is fine for my more serious outdoor shots my older Powershot SX120 IS camera has been repaired and because it has the advantage of slipping into my pocket is more practical for more casual everyday use - such as the family photographs (including a short video of my granddaughter dancing in a ballet) I took over Easter.