Doughnuts originated in Hertfordshire!

Dow Nuts (Mrs Fordham)

Receipt Book  (c1800)

A quarter of a Peek of Flower, a pound of moist Sugar, 10 Eggs {Yolks & Whites} one Nutmeg grated, 3/4 of a pound of fresh Butter, a quarter of a pint of Yeast. First melt the Butter over the fire in Milk; skim the Butter off. Mix the Sugar and Nutmeg with the Flour, making a hole in it at Top. Strain the Eggs and Yeast mixed together through a Sieve into the Flour; then put the Butter skimmed off the Milk into it also, with as much of the Milk as is necessary to make it into a paste. Let it stand by the fire half an hour to rise, throwing a Cloth over it. Then roll it out thick or thin as you like, cutting it into Nuts with a jagging Iron. Throw them into some Hogs-lard almost boiling hot; if quite boiling they are likely to be black, and if it does not near boil, they will be greasy. Stir them about with a skimmer with holes. Take them out with it, put them in a Cullender but do not put the hot ones to the cold, or they will be then heavy.

The thinner the Paste is rolled, the lighter and more cri[s]p it will be.

A little Sugar should be first put to the yeast and a little Milk, and set it by the Fire an hour to rise.

The Receipt Book of Baroness Elizabeth Dimsdale, c1800

An item in The Herts Record Society Newsletter (Spring 2014) relates to the history of the doughnut. Baroness Dimsdale collected a number of recipes over the years (some almost certainly in the late 18th century), including this one from a Hertfordshire friend. It appears to be the oldest known recipe for doughnuts.

Hertfordshire Fairs in 1854

Craven's 1854 Directory

List of Fairs in Craven's Directory, 1854

ALBAN's ST. - March 20 and 26, Oct. 10 and 11, for servants, horses, cows, and sheep

ALBURY, PATMORE HEATH. - July 18, for toys.

BALDOCK. - March 7, last Thursday in May, August 5, Oct. 3, Dec. 12, large fair for cheese, household goods, and cattle.

BARKWAY.- July 20, for pedlery ware.

BARNET. - April 8, 9, and 11, linen drapery, mercery, toys, etc. September 5, 6, and 7, sheep, Welsh cattle, horses, pigs, mercery, etc.

BENNINGTON. - July 11, pedlery ware.

BERKHAMSTEAD. - Shrove-Monday, Whit-Monday, a small fair for cattle. August 5, cheese. September 29, statute fair. October 11, statute.

... ... MORE

An Early 19th Century Route Map through Hertfordshire

Laurie & Whittle Route Map 1806

Laurie and Whittle's LaNew Travellers Companion, 

Exhibiting a complete and correct Survey of all the Direct and principal Cross Roads in England, Wales, and Scotland as far North as Edinburgh, and Glasgow:

was published by Nathl: Coltman in 1806

Commencement of the Roads to GLASGOW and EDINBURGH as far as Stamford with Roads to Uppingham and Market Deeping
In Hertfordshire the turnpike roads passes through Barnet, Hatfield and Welwyn, with one branch to Hitchin, and the other through Stevenage to Baldock. A branch to St. Albans also shown.

Larger Image

Lord Kitchener inspecting troops at St Albans

Detail showing Lord Kitchener at Gorhambury

When I was writing the book The London Gunners come to Town I was unable to find any good quality pictures of Lord Kitchener inspecting the 2nd London Division (Territorial Force) at Gorhambury on 29th September, 1914. A few days ago I succeeded in purchasing a very damaged (but digitally repairable) picture and have posted it - and the relevant text from the London Gunners, HERE.

Photographs of Patients at Napsbury Military Hospital 1916-1918

Military

Post Cards

For a period of about two years Ricardo Studios of St Albans regularly visited the wartime Military Hospital at Napsbury Asylum at London Colney and took posed photographs of groups of patients in the wards, or in the grounds. These would have been purchased by patients to send off to family and friends. Virtually all the pictures were numbered and I have now collected together a large number of images, many of which can be enlarged to allow easy identification of the faces. Sufficient of the cards are dated and this allows approximate dates to be given to the other cards. If you can identify any of the many hundreds of faces - or have other examples of Ricardo cards (especially if they are dated) let me know and help make the dating more accurate.

Click Here to see the collection of photographs. 

The Second Battle of St Albans - 2014 style

In camp before the fighting

This afternoon the 2nd Battle of St Albans was re-enacted on Bernards Heath, which is where most of the fighting took place in 1461.  The re-enactment was by the Medieval Siege Society and the day was organised by Sandridge900 - as Bernards Heath was part of the parish of Sandridge until about 100 years ago. My wife and I really enjoyed the event which is of special interest as the part of Bernards Heath used was surrounded by my great grandfather Jacob Reynolds' farm before St Albans houses sprawled all over it.  An earlier re-enactment, in 1907, was not held on the Heath.

I was interested to see that my booklet,  A Short History of Bernards Heath, had been reprinted by the Friends of Bernards Heath and was selling like hot cakes.

Read on for photographs of the fighting...

I'm "Under attack" from the Ukraine - Are they also attacking your blog?

The default statistics with this blog are somewhat limited - giving the top ten activities for the last couple of hours, the last day, week and month and for all time. Typically about 20% of the recorded visits appear to be from countries where I would expect little interest in the history of Hertfordshire or the people that lived there such as Russia and China I I take it for granted they are not genuine visits. Over the last few weeks a new country has appeared in the recent top 10. Last week Ukraine almost overtook the United Kingdom in top spot!. In a typical visit 8 pages are viewed in a minute (surely not a human visitor) then nothing for an hour or more, and then another 8 views in a minute, and another long pause. Yesterday I had 56 Ukraine views (= 8*7)

So what is going on. My statistics also includes a list of referring URL - and they are trying to get the URL of their criminal site onto the top 10 list in my blog statistics. They hope that if I see a URL I don't recognize I will be stupid enough to visit it and they can then download their malware onto my web site. So beware - if you have a blog or web site and get unexpected visitors - be on your guard and never never never visit URLs listed in your statistics just to see what is at the other end.

St Albans Museum to move to Town Hall - questionaire

St Albans Town Hall

St Albans

The St Albans Museum in Hatfield Road is to move to the central position of the Town Hall and if you are interested there is currently a questionnaire seeking your views.

Behind the Scenes Activity (Early May 2014)

In addition to the changes announced in the Newsletter there is always a lot going on behind the scenes. The following refer to the first two weeks in May.

Post Cards

New or improved images

unless otherwise stated a high resolution image is provided

• St Leonards, Bengeo: New coloured Picture of church - (separate page set up for church)
• Tallow Works Fire, Bernards Heath:  Greatly improved image added and linked to publisher
• Street View, Buckland: New picture including school children
• River Colne: Coloured picture of Five Arches Railway Bridge replaces monochrome version
• James Dickson, St Albans:  2014 photograph of his memorial vault in St Peter's Churchyard
• Hill End Hospital, St Albans: 1905 picture of Nurses taken by Montiville Evans from St Albans museum collection.
• Grimston Grave, Tewin: Another image (no larger image available) of the collection of different views of this interesting grave.

Places

Minor Place Page updates

• Bayford House, Bayford: additional information on occupiers.
• Bedwell Park, Essendon: additional information on occupiers.
• Rye House, Hoddesdon: Link to history of the Rye House Tavern
• Hill End Hospital, St Albans: New dating information on post card

New Publisher Link Pages:

• John Bishop of Royston (Father & Son) John senior's father was an artist in a travelling theatre)
• Knight Brothers
• Mitchell & Watkins
• Montiville Evans of St Albans - including extensive biography

Help Desk

Minor Queries and other emails

• Advised Carol about the start of civil registration and suggested she would find details of the 1837 birth/baptism on familysearch.org.
• Advised Julie about a possible home for some old school magazines and a family bible
• The census (especially if mis-transcribed) can cause problems and I suggested reasons why Kathy was confused.
• Ev, a distant cousin, contacted me about an exchange of information about common ancestors. Unfortunately I did the research over 30 years ago on a computer which no longer exists. Part of the information is somewhere in boxes of computer listings buried in boxes at the back of the garage. ... ...
• I don't have time to give a full answer to every enquiry and where appropriate I give preference to people who live a long way from Hertfordshire. As Lesley lived only a few miles from an excellent Hertfordshire Library with more relevant resources than I have, I suggested that a visit to the library would be more appropriate.
• Contacted Dianne about the exhibition 'Bushey during the Great War' in August [Full details will be posted later]
• Ian has provided a new link to the online account The Railway comes to Tring

A number of the above involve new or updated links to/from related pages. In addition there are some other "draft updates" already online which will be notified later this month.

A Free Sample of Eau de Cologne (in 1904)

Post Cards

St Albans

Sales promotion through your letter box is nothing new. 100 years ago it could come in the shape of an interesting post card for your collection. This card was sent from Coln, Germany, by a firm making Eau de Cologne, telling Mrs Hodding of St Albans than she can collect a sample from St Albans' major department store, J. Fisk & Son.

I have started to set up a page bringing together interesting examples of early advertising post cards. Have you any examples I could use?