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Putterills' Garage
... Claire Parker Yes my Dad, Trevor Weldon, took over the business after my grand father passed away in 1985. He ran it successfully until 2012 when he then retired. Welgan's repaired a car for Eric Morecambe's wife. ...
Cornelia Clutterbuck (1916 -1987), seen through her Scrapbook Diaries
Cornelia Clutterbuck, towards the end of her life When Cornelia Clutterbuck died in 1987, Simon Cotton wrote in Newsletter 44 (September 1987) that her will made specific mention of the Local History Society to whom she left her scrapbooks and diaries. In addition, her brother Robert handed over to the Society a range of other objects and papers, including a typical Victorian scrapbook and books of cuttings compiled by her mother, Beatrice, cover...
Publications by John Seabrook
New revised edition, 2013 John Seabrook: Bowling Alley Boyhood: Memories of South Harpenden in the 1930s and 1940s. A new edition, published in 2013, revised, reset and with more memories, more pictures and more names. Available from: Harpenden & District Local History Society enquiries@harpenden-history.org.uk Price £7.50, plus £1.35 p&p Harpenden in Peace and War John Seabrook: The Best of Times – 1920s to 1960s – Harpenden in living memory – “...
Publications by John Cooper
John Cooper: Harpenden History Tour – published in 2019 by Amberley Publishing at £7.99, and available at Harpenden Books and News4U, 1 Station Road. “you are sure to enjoy this trip down memory lane” John Cooper: A Village at War – published in 2018 by Amberley Publishing at £14.99 Drawing on a wealth of photos – some familiar and some from his own extensive collection of postcards – John links the two World Wars with a picture of the tranquil b...
The National Children's Home and Harpenden's twin town Alzey
Summary of a chapter in 700 Jahre Stadt Alzey, 1977 (pp 286-288) by F Walter Zuber*, (Bürgermeister of Alzey from 1982 to 1990). On 24 May 1974, in the course of an official visit from Alzey to Harpenden, Dr Buchheim, Kurt Neumann, Dr Meyer-Schwarzenberger and Walter Zuber visited Highfield Oval. Though brief, this visit was the start of a significant friendship, particularly between the Social Democratic Party (SPD) group on Alzey council and th...
Harpenden Shops in 1963
The Harpenden Free Press had its office on Church Green, and was clearly well-attuned to the local businesses. Some dates have been added, together with street numbers where these are needed to help locate shops which have since disappeared. Family Grocers Bentley’s at 66 High Street, 1920s – LHS 883 Bentley’s self-service at 68 High Street, 1960s – LHS 883 Shortly after the turn of the century (1900), the young Mr and Mrs W E Bentley opened a gr...
Kinsbourne Green
From the late Eric Brandreth’s collection of articles typed ready for publication in the Society Newsletter. This account of Kinsbourne Green was written in 1991 and Geoff Woodward has sent us updates and amendments. Further updates added in 2018. Annotated copy from 1924 OS map showing position of The Kennels, and the Wernher Recreation Room The pubs The Fox, c. 1970 Whip Cottage – the Whip until 1935 Several old buildings still stand at Kinsbou...
The Harpenden Ink Factory
... Rosemary Ross A recently discovered photograph of Cowper Road, looking towards Station Road, has provided us with a view of part of 'Irene', on the site of Kinloch Court, 70 Station Road. It is very rewarding to go back through old photos and find new information. ...
Howard Latimer Penman F.R.S. 1909-1984
‘Penman’s Formula’ is used worldwide by meteorologists and agricultural scientists to measure the balance between rainfall and evaporation in different locations in the world. Howard Penman, the author of this equation, was a distinguished Rothamsted scientist and government advisor, and a well-known local figure in Harpenden. Howard Penman was born in County Durham and studied at Durham University where he graduated in Physics in 1930. While wor...
Register
Registration is optional on this website. You can view all the content of the website without registering. You can also contribute photos and stories to the site without registering. However, you should register on the site if you’re going to be a regular editor or contributor. Registration form Hidden Is the user logged in? Nope Yes About you Please tell us a few details about you, so we can contact you if we need to. We won't use your contact d...
The Nickey Line
Roundwood Halt in 1946, looking towards Redbourn The Nickey Line, as we in Harpenden call it, really has its origins in Hemel Hempstead. The London and Birmingham Railway passed through Boxmoor so leaving Hemel Hempstead on the other side of the valley without a railway, but it was not long before proposals to link the two places were made. The first Act was obtained for this short line on 12 July 1863, but in 1866 plans changed, and connection w...
Victoria Road Schools - 1897 - 1997
Originally published in Harpenden First, 20 November 1997, to celebrate the centenary of the opening of the school. In 1894 the people of Harpenden elected a school board to manage the village school, the last village in the county to do so. One of its first tasks was to find a site for a new building; the old British School in Leyton Road (now Park Hall) had been provided by Sir John Bennet Lawes in 1850, and was now too small. After a thorough ...
Harpenden Free Library
In the early twenties a group of Harpenden people, aware that no library facilities existed for the general public, took steps to initiate what has by now become the Public Library. The suggestion came from Miss Mary S. Aslin, Librarian at Rothamsted Experimental Station, and was energetically taken up by Mrs, afterwards Lady, Bowley, who enlisted interest and support on all sides. A committee was formed with Lady Bowley as Chairwoman. Other me...
The Avenues
The story of “The Avenues” is the story of the sale of the land of various farms in the area bounded by Amenbury Lane, Park Avenue, Morton End Lane and Luton Road. The first was the fairly small Morton End Farm, in 1870 – not so long after the railway to London was built. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners also sold fields – for instance Churchwick Close. The house which was the core of what is now the Gleneagles Hotel – Kirkwick – was one result. ...
Harpenden's Oldest House?
One timber-framed house was recognised as being truly old by the Revd N. Mable, and it was through the attention which he drew to it that it has been preserved from demolition. This building at 2 Southdown Road, is now being sympathetically restored by its new owner who is planning that the slight remains of a wall painting and part of the ‘basket work’ in a wattle and daub wall shall be kept exposed. The house is thought, by one expert, to date ...
Sir Halley Stewart Kt, F.K.C. J.P. 1838 -1937
Halley Stewart, Congregational Minister, Liberal Member of Parliament, businessman and benefactor was born in 1838 at Chipping Barnet, the tenth of the fourteen children of Alexander Stewart, Minister of Wood Street Independent (Congregational) Church and his wife Ann. Alexander had taught at John Lemon’s School, Holloway, while training for the Ministry at Hoxton College for Independent Ministers. At Wood Street he opened a school to eke out his...
Anscombes of Harpenden - Past and Present
Sales Departments in 1981- Top left to right -Millinery, Separates, Lingerie, Bottom row left to right- Hosiery, Haberdashery & Fancy Goods, Household Linens. Credit: LHS archives – copy of brochure Allen Anscombe was born on 30th October 1824 and died on 10th July 1903. In his lifetime, he created and built up a business which was to become something of an institution in Harpenden, ‘Allen Anscombe & Sons’ – but more generally known as ‘Anscombes...
Maple Convalescent Home
A contemporary account of Sir John Blundell Maple’s provision for the welfare of his employees. See also Akrill House. We have very great pleasure in giving the accompanying illustration of the Maple Convalescent Home for the temporarily invalided, and Almshouses and Homes of Rest for the aged, or those of the employees and others connected with the great house in Tottenham Court Road who may have become incapacitated for business. The homes, whi...
Waverley Mills
... Diana Parrott An extract from Kinsbourne Green: My Childhood Village by Connie Howard "When I first started work at the Waverley Mills in Harpenden, sewing waistcoats, I went on the back of my brother's motor bicycle and returned by the bus. It was dark walking up Fiddlers Hill Lane. After a short while mother bought a bicycle for me. ...
Batford added to Harpenden
“On 1st April 1935 the area of the Urban District was added to by the inclusion of certain parts of the St Albans Rural District, including Batford, and increased from 1,631 to 3,126 acres. With the exception of Batford which is sewered, the drainage of the additional parts is by cesspools. The Council has contracted to empty these cesspools under an order from the Surveyor on the request of applicants. Only one emptying is paid for by the Coun...
Rothamsted Park
In 1623 Anne Wittewronge bought the Manor of Rothamsted for her infant son John. The estate was then handed down through branches of the family until in 1822 it passed to the eight year old John Bennet Lawes. He founded the Rothamsted Experimental Station in 1843, when he employed Joseph Henry Gilbert to join him in conducting a series of experiments. In 1889 Sir John established the Lawes Agricultural Trust, set up to ensure the continuation of ...
Rhymes from Hertfordshire
Within living memory, men and women had to pick up their trades without night school or text books, let alone technical colleges. This must be the reason, I think why many elderly tradesmen are able to repeat proverbs and rhymes which guided them in their work; I give a few examples below. A partial exception to this absence of text books was Thomas Tusser’s famous “ Five hundredth pointes of good husbandrie” published in 1573. When, as a factory...
School Days in the 1930's
Thinking of school days in the 1930’s, most of us were taken to school, either St Nicholas Church School or Victoria Road Council School, by our mothers, walking from as far as Westfield and Bowling Alley (Longfield Road) areas. Both schools were for 5-14 year old girls and boys. Lessons would start at 9am, with a mid-morning break of 10/15 minutes to drink a bottle of hot or cold milk costing a half penny, and finish at 12 noon. All of us walked...
Burial Mound in the Lea Valley
In the early years of the nineteenth century a local farmer, Joseph Freeman, rented a field between Coldharbour Lane and the River Lea from Francis Pym and Charles William Packe, two of the biggest owners of land in Harpenden. In this meadow was a tumulus, roughly fifty feet around the base and twenty feet high. At some date between 1822 and 1830 it was opened and a massive stone sarcophagus of Romano-Celtic origin was unearthed. The sarcophagu...
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