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Jonathan Hardy is indeed listed at Ardgower (70) Station Road in Kelly’s Diectories for 1928 and 1930, but by 1931 it had become a Boarding House. Ardgower had been built by William Sparrow as Irene, and was for a while an ink factory.
Thanks for sharing the information about Crown House, formerly the Crown & Anchor pub. As mentioned, Jonathan Hardy (my great uncle) lived there for quite a few years from the 1930’s to 1951. He had previously lived at Ardgower in Harpenden, and had an insurance brokers business in the town. Does anyone have any recollections of the family and the brokerage business?
These diaries have been scanned and are available online on the e-RA website (electronic Rothamsted Archive): http://www.era.rothamsted.ac.uk/eradoc/books/6
From the late 1950s until about 1967, I lived at number 38 Springfield Crescent, with my mum, Marion, my dad, Donald, and my sister, Fran. I remember our garden having a variety of old apple trees in it. I played with Clive Edgerton, and his sister Lynn, and found their house and grounds exciting to play in, not least because they had a tree-house!
Pyramidology V is out, as mentioned in my Comment in September – below. Here is the link:
https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/801101-the-great-pyramid-and-connections-with-the-bible?fbclid=IwAR3gAQZah9frrd2wG2QAMZCDZNuUaf0DczlJFtgMo8JBIoPhpm_vnOKK7-I
My father Peter Charles Thomas Jones who lived in Harpenden until 1962 was a stalwart of the Harpenden drama league and was directing performing and even writing his own musical play “Honey and Cream”
I was in the NCH Harpenden in the 1980s. I and my brother and 3 sisters were all in different flats and were there until we got fostered. We were called the famous five in the Luton News and it would be good to hear from people who were there.
Ed: Barbara, do you have a copy of the Luton News report?
Thank you, David. I attended this Methodist church as a child and then teenager in the 1960’s. My parents would always give me a thrupenny bit to put in the collection plate. Back in those days even younger children dressed up for church, usually a sports jacket and tie. Part way through the service, we would troop across the street to Sunday School in either the tin-roof old church or the brick addition on the back of it. I can remember passing a number of scripture exams. Around 1970, Paul and Glenda Davis organised a Sunday evening meeting for older teenagers at the church that was called SEYG (Sunday Evening Youth Group), usually held at their home in Highfield Avenue. I have fond memories of the Southdown Methodist Church.
A wonderful insight into Harpenden’s history and my ancestors, the White family, who lived there. Olivia Bessie White married into the Ackroyd family and through the Harpenden history society I have been and to trace living members of this family. Thank you.
I went to Roundwood JMI School in the early 1970’s, and there were a number of children from Field House at the school. There was a Dawn Richardson in my class for a couple of years, and then there was a Sharon Keenan who came new to the school after summer half term in 1973, but by the following September she’d left. I was always pally with Dawn, & we found each other on Friends Reunited, and we interact on Facebook. She has 3 adult daughters and several grandchildren. Obviously it would be totally inappropriate to find out why she was in Field House. Sharon always seemed a bit of a sad little girl, and I often wonder what happened to her
I too have very bad memories of Mr Reece, who walked up and down the rows hitting me on my head. Miss Erskine taught us the times tables by rote and I will forever be grateful. A rather grumpy male teacher taught handwriting. I don’t remember any woodwork. I was a pupil from 1952 until 1959. The teacher in my first class was Miss Anstey and I fell in love with her on my first day!
About subsurface water resurfacing at South Mymms: Before the Anglian glaciation, the proto-Thames flowed up the Colne valley, through the Hatfield area and along the middle Lea valley in the Hertford / Ware area. Despite having been blocked, there is still a general flow of water through the chalk along the old course, although not an actual subterranean river. The water that disappears at Water End near North Mymms joins this system, and re-emerges mostly around the springs between Hertford and Ware that feed the New River. This was found by tracing the pollution plume from an old chemical factory in Sandridge, in the lower Harpenden dry valley, it was found that groundwater here also flows under Hatfield towards Hertford. In this area of Hertfordshire, we find that surface and groundwater can flow in different directions.
Harold Hickmott received a gold watch for long service on 5 May 1951. His great grandson Steve Allen commented on Old Harpenden Facebook page in 2015 that he still treasures this award.
Hi can you email me your memories of my dad please, l_empson@live.co.uk
I’m delighted to have been successful in purchasing The Lacrosse Girl by John Frye Bourne at auction, in May 2021. The painting will be much enjoyed here in Edinburgh, further to receiving minor conservation treatment – bringing back memories of times on the lacrosse pitch!
Do you have pics of the area before Wimpey Estate? I use to live at 64 Townsend Lane and can remember before the houses were new build houses at 61, 59& 57, there was a large Edwardian House across the road.
Ed> Unfortunately we do not have any photos of the Townsend Estate, nor of the Edwardian house, Somerled, which you mention. However, we did receive an enquiry in 2018 about this house, from a nephew of Charles Goodall, who had lived in Somerled from 1928 until he moved to Leeds after the war. The house seems to have survived (becoming 71), still recorded in the last Kelly’s Directory wich was published in 1974. Hartwell Gardens was developed at this corner by 1982. It is such a pity that no-one seemed to keep a photographic record of houses destined for demolition. This is still happening. The main part of the estate had been Claygates Apple farm.
Does anybody know James Crow? He lived at Harpenden and went to Manland Junior school 1969 -1971 which is when I met him. A lovely boy with a beautiful singing voice.
Hello Lorna ,Very sad to hear that Raymond has died, am so sorry.. But so happy to hear that he went on to have a child. I was in the same family as him, with Sis Joan Vivash. from 1950-56. Please feel free to contact me if I can answer any questions for you, I will. Tho of course memories can get sparse with passing of time.
I see you have re-arranged the order of comments and I have lost my pole position!!!! Never mind. I have found the programme for the production of “Toad of Toad Hall” in February 1949 at Lourdes Hall. If you can give me an e-mail address, I will scan it and send it. It is only 2 sides slightly smaller than A4 as paper was in short supply. Jim Maxwell
Ed – the Comments are now listed in chronological order from the bottom (the earliest, by you) to the most recent.
Pyramidology V Ph.D. essay has been confirmed to be correct. Proving the Bible with Mathematics. Then came Covid19 and everything were stuck. Now in the year 2021 the essay has been confirmed but not defended. Hopefully this matter will be solved. Institute of Pyramidology has been setup in Iceland where Benjamin tribe is. Concerning Larry Pahl we met in Egypt 2020 and are in contract. This matter is in process.
In December 2013 Ray Ganderton wrote: “I was born in Harpenden and set-up home there after getting married in 1973. My second house was at 13 Roundwood Lane. There was a short stretch of off-road parking, in front, which ran from number 1 to number 19. One Sunday afternoon I happened to glance out of the front room window and saw a buff-coloured Rolls Royce, parking alongside my garden wall. It was Eric and his wife. They were close friends of the Hamersley family (well known antiques dealers) who lived at number 12 but they could not accommodate his Rolls in their driveway.”
I was in the 10th Methodist Scouts, first as a cub scout and then a scout. I don’t see myself in the photo but I remember being in some Gang Shows. Pat Hooper ran the cub scouts and her husband ran the scouts – really nice people. They lived at the end of Grove Road. I do remember a couple of 10th Methodist Scout camps, one near Salisbury and the other near Newton Abbott in Devon. The latter was a combined camp with the 3rd Methodist Scouts and we all traveled to Devon by train. Such happy days of long ago!
I attended Batford Nursery school in the late 1950s. My parents lived in Grove Road and my mother brought me to the school in a pushchair, a long walk for her. I do remember napping on the camp beds.
I attended the funeral of both Harry and his sister Margaret who are buried together in the local cemetery. They were my Uncle and Aunt, and told us many stories about their house in Milton Road. We visited it once, and found some of Ronald’s old specimens up in the attic in glass jars.
At least one good neighbour told me of the antics of the Fisher tribe children in and around Milton road – still remembered 50 years later!
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