Did Jerome Ltd (photographers) produce any Hertfordshire photographs?

Cottered

The Japanese Garden at Cottered

A recent query drew my attention to the Cottered page and this photograph of the Japanese Garden which was started in 1906 with further developments in 1923.

Post Cards, Etc

I wanted to check the date and the back of the card had the name Jerome Ltd. The company had a wide number of shops throughout Great Britain between the wars, and up to the 1950s - but most of their output seems to have been portrait photographs. A check of trade directories between the wars failed to show any shops in Hertfordshire and it may be that this picture, and another, currently on sale on ebay, showing a hut at High Leigh, Hoddesden, may have been taken by someone else and Jerome Ltd simply produced the prints. So have you ever come across any post cards, or other pictures linked to Hertfordshire by Jerome Ltd?

Kimpton Hoo

Books

I have just discovered this useful book online. 
(If you spot an online book on Hertfordshire I have note noted help everyone by telling me about it.)

NOBLE & SPLENDID
Scandal, Honour and Duty:
the Families of Kimpton Hoo
By Peter Hale
For The Kimpton History Group

2008

Online Copy (pdf)

Help Desk

I have also had a query from Jana about  an Elizabeth Winslow, who was the dairy maid at The Hoo (Kimpton/St Pauls Walden)  in the 1881 census. I will post details if we can find any further Hertfordshire connection.

Monthly Report, April 2013

Thanks to everyone who has commented on my post Future Plans for this web site, which I have found helpful. My plan to cut back to one day a week on Genealogy matters during the summer seems to be working - as I managed still  17 posts in April - and page views of the Newletter are holding up well with over 5500 in April compared with an average of approximately 6000 a month between November and March. Visitor numbers to the main site are down a little compared with April 2012, but well up on April 2010 and 2011.

The first part of May could be a bit quiet as some time ago I booked a seat on a coach trip to the National Archives at Kew and I may well write a report on the visit for the site. However the trip - plus preparation and follow up - could well take up 2 days of the allocated "genealogy time" for May - but I would hope to get at least 10 posts in sometime during the month.

Limiting the "genealogy time" has given me more time to relax doing other thing - such as attending local U3A meetings and other social activities - and planning a short holiday in Devon during the summer. This will be for a special 50th anniversary - but will mean some work as I need to do some preparation first. I need to spend more time swimming and on more energetic rural relaxations as over the winter I put on far too much weight (blame the duck) and need to get back on course,

I should warn you that my other blog Trapped by the Box is looking healthier with page views exceeding 1200 page views in April. A few days ago I added a paper From the Neuron to Human Intelligence: Part 1: The "Ideal Brain" Model, which show the relationship between the research I was doing at University 25 years ago and modern brain research. If this creates a  lot of interest it could mean I have less time available for genealogy! 

Rural Relaxation - The Water levels are up

Startops Reservoir, near Tring, March 2013
A year ago  this view showed medieval ridge and furrow markings

I am keeping up my walking - with frequent visits to College Lake - and around the district. Compared with a year ago the water levels are very high, The above picture shows that Startops Reservoir is full, and no sign of the Medieval ridge and furrow areas I photographed from this point last year. I wonder how many years it will be before the water level is low enough to show them clearly again.

All that is left of Big Paddy, College Lake, near Tring, April 2013

The water level rise at College Lake Nature Reserve is far more serious. When I first visited the reserve over 20 years ago the main lake area was still a working quarry, with active pumping to keep the water levels low. Someone estimated how far the water levels would rise when quarrying stopped, allowing for drainage through the chalk. Several unquarried areas were left to act as islands for the birds to nest on - but the calculations were wrong and the islands disappeared under the rising water. Some years later bulldozers were used to build two more islands in the main lake area. The work was done by a couple of Irishmen - so the islands were called Little Paddy and Big Paddy.  The waters have continued to rise. Little Paddy has already disappeared and the above picture shows all that is left of Big Paddy a few days ago.

Flooded Track at College Lake Nature Reserve, near Tring. March 2013

In addition the water has risen to cover one of the main low level paths at the reserve, which is now only passable if you are wearing wellingtons (or shorts and flip-flops when the weather is warmer). While the water can be expected to drop if we have a dry summer the chances of the water level dropping to clear the path completely are low unless some way is found to pump a large quantity of water from the lake into the nearby Grand Union Canal

More about Aldbury and the Waikato War in New Zealand in 1873

A Battle in the Waikato War, 1873

Last month I pointed out that Things aren't always what the census appears to be telling you. Dale has now contacted me from New Zealand to say she was the descendant of Henry Price Meredith. The young Henry was living with Sir William Ball at a posh London address in the 1841 and 1851 censuses and became a surgeon, before emigrating to New Zealand. However New Zealand records make it quite clear that he was the son of Michael Meredith, who was a railway porter living in railway cottages at Tring Station Aldbury in 1841 and 1851.

Dale has provided some additional information about Michael Meredith at the start of the Waikato War, and while he may have been the first English civilian to die, the British Army had already taken the first steps towards trying to evict Maoris from land where Europeans wished to settle. [The British Empire was built on such "honourable" intentions]

For more information see MEREDITH, Tring Station, Aldbury, mid-19th century - In  addition to the above I have added dates for the Aldbury family from parish registers which have recently become available online.

Some Hertfordshire Books in the HathiTrust Digital Library

Herts Books

The HathiTrust Digital Library is a digital preservation repository and highly functional access platform. It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and in copyright content from a variety of sources. Some of the Hertfordshire books I found in full text were:

Historical Sketch of Rickmansworth and surrounding parishes, by Rev. R. Bayne, 1870

Two Lectures on the History and Antiquities of Berkhamsted, by J. W. Cobb, 1855

Topographical and Statistical Description of the County of Hertford, G. A. Cooke, 1800

The Noble Science: A Few General Ideas on Fox-hunting ... Hertfordshire, by F. P. D. Radcliffe, 1839

History of the Ancient Town of Hertford, by Lewis Turnor, 1830

A blue-coat boy's recollections of Hertford School, by G. A. Wickham, 1841

General view of the Agriculture of Hertfordshire, by Arthur Young, 1804

The Trial of John Thurtell and Joseph Hunt at Hertford, 1824

There are undoubtedly other books in full text, and an even larger number of copyright books with search facilities.

Are your old family photographs safe for future generations?

Did you know that in the clear up after the Japanese tsunami special efforts were made to rescue items which could be of particular historical interest, such as old photograph albums. How safe are your old photographs? It is well worth reading the National Trust's Weekly Witter: Saving the Family Album if you have anything that needs preserving for the benefit of your descendants.

More about Buntingford

Jackson, Butchers, Buntingford

Buntingford

Last October I added a page to the main site about the Jackson family of butchers from Buntingford based on some old invoices, as an example of how interesting ephemera can be when it has survived (which rarely happens). Alison recently wrote to tell me that the invoices (and much more beside) had all been kept by a Jeffery Smith, of Buntingford and I have added details to the Jackson page.

Old News

Alison also drew my attention to the Facebook site on which she is posting news items from the Buntingford and North East Herts Gazette from 1923 to 1940. She says: Not only does it give a fascinating insight into how the town was run with accounts of how the various prominent local citizens (who often served on half a dozen or more committees) gave selflessly of their time to serve on various committees like the Poor Union, the Rural District Council, the various church councils, the burial ground committee, assorted fundraising committees particularly for the Royston Hospital, the Nursing Fund and so on, but it also gives details of funerals and who attended (most useful for genealogical research) sports results, types of entertainment, advertisements for local businesses, Petty Sessions. It takes me some time to do the uploading because I read every word! But it paints an intimate picture of life in the town at that time.

A Query about Brickfields near Ware

Help Desk

Brickmakers

Regular visitors to my site will know that I am interested in brickmaking in the St Albans area of Hertfordshire, but occasionally answer questions about other parts of the county -such as Jane's question about Bricklayers & Builders of Ware, Early 19th Century in 2009.

Ware

Wendy has just sent me the following query, which is really more appropriate to the web site Our Hertford and Ware (associated with Hertfordshire Memories) but some of you may know the area around Ware better than I do and be able to help. She says:

I wonder if you can help me?  As a child I lived on the banks of the River Lea in a couple of old gypsy caravans.  This was about 1944.  I think the area was called the Brickfields.  I don't remember any evidence of bricks, but it had certainly been a rubbish dump - probably during Victorian times, as our chickens were always unearthing clay pipe-stems and bowls, and tiny china dolls-heads and legs.   We were living there during the 1946/47(?) winter which was very cold and the river froze over.                 

Last year I returned to England and made a fleeting visit to Ware to try to find the whereabouts of the site of my caravan home.  Without success.  Although we walked alongside the river from the lock, past the playing fields, and on, nothing served to jog my memory.  

Can you throw any light on the possible site? It was quite a walk from Ware, across a few little bridges and streams, as I recall.      We were beyond a pig farm, owned I think by a Mr. Stanyon, which had a never-to-be-forgotten odour as the pigs were fed on lorry-loads of pea-shucks from the Fropax(?) canning factory.

Latest Issue of Herts Past & Present

Hertfordshire Association
 for Local History

The Spring 2013 Issue of Herts Past and Present has now been published and the articles in this issue are

• Brief Guide to Sources: Vestry Minutes - by David Short
• King Aethelred's land grant of 1 hide at Flamstead to St Albans monastry, 1005: Bounds centred upon Lybury Lane, Redbourn, by Victor S. White
• Traditional Woodland Management in South-East Hertfordshire, by Peter Austin
• The Role of the St Albans City Military Service Tribunal in the First World War, by Jonathan Mein and Anne Wares
• Golf in Hertfordshire, 1890-1912, by Julie Moore