Jacob Reynolds & Family, Heath Farm, Sandridge, 1892

Jacob Reynolds & Family at Heath Farm, Bernards Heath in 1892

Sandridge

In connection with Sandridge900 I have just posted this picture and views of Heath Farm - which was in Sandridge at this date, but later became St Albans on my web site. The web page includes a short biography of all the people shown - and their main links with Sandridge/St Albans as adults - together with pictures of Heath Farm. (Jacob Reynolds was my Great Grandfather and Harry Reynolds (back row right) was my Grandfather. 

I would be very interested to hear memories of the Farm when it was still operating as a diary - and would be delighted (and very surprised) if anyone knows the name of the dog.

Improved Pictures of Hunton Bridge (Abbots Langley)

Langleybury School, Hunton Bridge, circa 1905

Churches

Abbots Langley

I have reorganized the pages for Hunton Bridge (which includes Langleybury) and rescanned all the old postcards images so that they are now available at a higher resolution. This includes pictures of St Paul's Church, Langleybury, the War Memorial (as it was in the 1920s), and the Hunton Bridge Village School.

War Memorials

The War Memorial at Hunton Bridge

A Visit to Hertford Museum

Hertford

I have decided that when I am travelling around Hertfordshire I should drop into local museums or other historic attractions and write a short illustrated report. So I have posted a short review, with an emphasis on the War displays, of Hertford Museum.

Picture Updates on the Hertfordshire Genealogy Web Site

Post Cards

I am currently reorganising my post card collection and relating it to the pictures on the web site - some of which have been online since the site started in 2001. Few of the older pictures have high resolution images and some need re-scanning to fit in with recent scanning and display technology. In addition there are many cards in the queue waiting to appear on the site, together with some Victorian photographs and engravings. If I was not careful this newsletter (and the associated twitter feed @HertsGenealogy) could become full of notifications such that a single picture had been added to a tiny village.

There is already a page where the menu lists recent post card updates - and the main window normally shows one of the latest updates. The latest views can be accessed by clicking on the picture on the Home page. In future all cases where a single new picture has been added or a poor quality image replaced I will wait until there are a batch of such updates.

Military

Churches

(1) There is significant added text of historical or family history interest, perhaps in answer to a question..In a number of cases a new page may need to be created - for instance to have a special page for the parish church - and such changes will be reported

(2) The picture is particularly relevant to the First World War (pictures of troops, war memorials, etc.) because of the amount of interest in this area at present the present time.

The latest single image updates relate to:

• An early picture (before enlarged nave) of Christ Church, Radlett
• A picture of Christ Church, Chorleywood and vicarage
• A multiview card of Puckeridge from the 1930s.

Herts WW1 Post Cards at Sky High Prices

Military

A number of excellent post cards have appeared on ebay at pretty fantastic prices, but if you are interested you better take a quick look before they sell.

The 11th with bridge over the River Lea

Three show the 11th London Regiment (The Finsbury Rifles) and the posting date of June 1915 suggests they presumably relate to the reserve Battalion as the 1st Battalion went to France in March 1915. One show a bridge they built over the River Lea. 

The 11th marching from St Albans to Hemel Hempstead

One shows a route march to Essendon, and another leaving St Albans on a route march to Hemel Hempstead.

Four more cards (all unposted) relate to the 23rd London Regiment (East Surrey). Three relate to the troops arrival in Hatfield in 1915. The other is undated and shows the the troops marching to South Mimms with the title "The Return to Hatfield". This would suggest it was the reserve battalion returning to the place where the 1st Battalion trained - undoubtedly including some men (for instance older officers) who had not gone to France with the 1st Battalion, but had stayed behind to train the reserves.

The 23rd on "The Return to Hatfield"

All photographs were taken by E. Kentish of Hatfield (possibly Edward William Kentish, son of John Kentish, baker, of Hatfield).

Army Billetting in Hertfordshire

Army Billetting - by Cynicus - 1914

Military

I have just found this card - by Cynicus - which relates to the problems of Army billeting when the Territorial Forces mobilized to war stations in August 1914. While this card mentions Canterbury there were probably identical cards with the names of Hertfordshire towns inserted. Let me know if you are aware of any.

Army Orderlies learning how to cook at St Albans

Orderlies, 23rd T.R.B.

Military

This picture shows a group of orderlies, described as "23rd T.R.B." All are carrying a cooking implement - apart from the one in the back row carrying a large beef bone.

They were photographed by Lea Latimer Christmas from his St Albans address (1915 or later).

Does anyone know what "T.R.B." might stand for? There was a Military School of Cookery at St Albans during the First World War, and it is know that classes were given numbers.

Obviously it would be nice to able able to identify some of the individuals but that is a long shot. However you may know of similar pictures of orderlies being trained to cook at St Albans - perhaps with different class(?) number? There was also a set of photographs of the School of Cookery but I only know of some of the numbered copies, and would love to know the titles (and even better have images) of the missing numbers.

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Peter has drawn my attention to the relevant page of The Long, Long, Trail, and I have updated the main site with:

The Training Reserve Battalions were created in September 1916 as part of a significant reorganisation of the infantry reserve battalions. "The TR units dropped the cap badges and shoulder titles of their former regiments and instead wore a large General Service button on a red disc on the cap and the letters TR as a shoulder title." An examination of the picture shows that one of the soldiers has a "TR" shoulder title. The 23rd Battalion was formed out of the 10th (Reserve) Battalion, the Royal Sussex Regiment, which was based at Shoreham. In May 1917 there was another reorganisation and the Battalion became the 25th Young Soldier Battalion.

The Problem of Houses with Hertfordshire Place Names

Help Desk

I recently had a query asking why a family with no connection with Devon appear to have lived in a house in Watford named after a Devon Village. I gave the following reply:

When I was living in Sydney, Australia, I had to get used to the idea that travelling from Kings Cross you could cross the Surrey Hills, and get to Stanmore via Darlington. At least it was easier to remember that if you went north up the coast Gateshead was immediately adjacent to Newcastle.

 

People have been moving round the world giving their new home the name of the place they came from. There are thousands of small private houses in Hertfordshire, built during the housing boom brought on by the coming of the railways, which were given place names by their first owner  because street house numbering was not common. They moved on  - and the new owner might retain the old name - or give it a new one. If your ancestor's photograph was taken at the time of their wedding the house might still have the name given to it by an earlier owner - and they might have changed the name (or simply removed the name plate) later.  In some cases the names may have been given by the builder, and recorded in the brickwork, which explains the Devon names of some houses in St Albans.

 

I actually have related problems in buying post cards to illustrate this site - as in many cases pictures of large houses are advertised as if they are in the town or village they are named after. It can be difficult to discover whether they are pictures of genuine Hertfordshire houses which have since been demolished or of an impostor with a Hertfordshire-related name. I have not yet come across a case of Apsley House (also known as No. 1, London) being placed in Apsley, Hertfordshire, but I have definitely had problems with less prestigious addresses.

 

The Nascot Road area of Watford you mention started to develop as housing in the 1850s and 1860s, and if you look at the census you may find someone living in the area between 1861 and 1901 who came from the appropriate part of Devon!

A better Time Line for Frederick Downer (Watford) photographs

Watford

Post Cards

CDV from 1870s

Frederick Downer was an important Watford photographer, and I am interested in building up a section containing examples of his work (contributions gratefully received). I have recently added details of his carte de visite which identifies 4 different backs, in date order. This will help date other photographs, especially if they have reference numbers.

Month End Report, February 2014

The February statistics are good. The Newsletter and the main web site has had virtually as many visitors as January - despite February being three day shorter, and with significantly less posts - 16 down from 27. However I have ended the month with a number of updates and new posts unfinished in part because of some computer technical problems, and in part because I allowed myself to become distracted with some interesting but inessential historical probes and spent several days chasing them up. 

Don't expect any in depth research in March. During the month someone I know dropped down dead - and while he was not a close friend it reminded me that I can't expect to continue to run this site indefinitely - and that I really must get my affairs in order. For instance a chat with my son reminded me that my will (if I can find it) still includes provision for the care of my young family should I go prematurely - which is rather out of date as my daughters  Belinda and Lucy have predeceased me while my son is now over 50! 

So in March you can expect quite a few Newsletter items relating to Herts at War drawing attention to work other people are doing (such items do not take much time). I may also spend some time tidying up some of the work in progress which I did not finish in February. However any interesting new questions will have to wait until after Easter.

At the moment I think the best thing I can do is to schedule this post to appear after midnight - and get a early night's sleep ...