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Ernest Hasseldine (1875-1944): Local Harpenden Artist of Distinction
Ernest Hasseldine the artist Born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, he was educated in London and trained there for his profession as a black and white artist. In London he met Edith Mary Barrett. They were married in Kilburn in 1901 and settled in N.W. London. Later Ernest and Edith moved to Harpenden for health reasons and because the charm of the place attracted Ernest who soon began to take an interest in local affairs. He declined nomination for the ...
Sunday School Picture from late 1950's.
This is a chance for the people of Harpenden to play spot themselves. This is a photograph of St Nicholas Church Sunday School taken in the late 1950’s. My wife, Carol BLAND, is near the back behind the REV. Her brother Malcolm is in the back row on the right side. Her youngest brother, Chris (Deceased), is just behind the REV. Her sister, Joan (Deceased) is near the back on the left. Her sister, Sylvia (Deceased) is seated to the right of the RE...
No.2 Southdown Road, Harpenden
This is an incomplete small late medieval hall-house built in about 1500. Most of the two-bay hall and parlour cross-wing survive, but the construction of the adjoining property at the north end (maybe in the nineteenth century) probably destroyed a service room and cross-passage. Both ranges have crown-post roofs. The original wattle and daub infilling of the timber-frame is largely replaced by brick of various dates; roof tiling and brick chimn...
War Memorials in Harpenden Churches
The war memorials in Harpenden Churches supplement the information on the Town War Memorial. There are many first names given, and more details of the battalion within the regiments. The rank is Private unless otherwise stated. Dates and locations of death are only given on the few individual plaques donated by families and friends. 1914-18 Written List in St Nicholas Church. Credit: Gavin Ross, April 2013 The lists in St Nicholas Church gives 10...
Basil Kassanis F.R.S. 1911-1985
Above the ‘Harpenden’ sign on the Common is a carving of a hart, the work of Basil Kassanis, amateur sculptor and a leading plant virologist at Rothamsted. His major contributions to the understanding of how plant diseases are spread and can be controlled are of great value to us all. Born in Skopje but brought up in Greece, he worked first with the Institute of Plant Improvement, near Salonica. In 1938 he was offered a scholarship at Rothamsted,...
Edwin Richard Billingham 1870-1961
Credit: T Pakkenen These photographs of an elegant piano with ‘E R Billingham Harpenden’ on it were sent to the Society by the piano’s new owner in Finland who asked if we had any details of the firm. Piano showing E R Billingham, Harpenden. Credit: T. Pakkenen Mr Billingham’s shops Geoffrey Woodward sent this information:- ‘The shop was at 12 Station Road and had just been built when Billingham moved in in 1898. Station Road 1910s showing ‘Billi...
The Home Front in Harpenden - 1939
Iris Page and Margaret Bell, with a display based on Iris’s memories Marking just 75 years since the start of WWII and the arrival of some 2000-2500 evacuees in Harpenden between Friday the 1st and Sunday the 3rd September 1939, we were delighted to welcome one of those evacuees to the exhibition. Iris Page, with her husband John and lifelong friend Margaret Bell, came to Harpenden specially to visit the exhibition and share their memories. Iris ...
Harpenden Corps of Drums
... I have been looking for this photograph for some time. This was in the 1980s at Rothamsted Park, Harpenden when Eric MORECAMBE the President of The Harpenden Corps of Drums posed with some of the band members. There are more pictures of the Corps on my page about Kimpton Fete, including many taken by Linda Shields when her children were members. ...
The Jarrow Crusade
The first Jarrow march in 1936 had passed through Harpenden on 29 October on its way to petition the government for help for the unemployed of the North East. The Jarrow March in Harpenden High Street, 1936. Credit: Scan of Postcard supplied by Louise M Emery In 1986 a commemorative march was organised, at a time of renewed high unemployment, particularly in the North East. Peter Moyse took these pictures as the march passed along the High Street...
Blackberries Galore!
This article was first published in Newsletter 106, in December 2008 During the Open Day held by St Nicholas School on Saturday 28 June 2008, in celebration of its 150th Anniversary, I was able to browse through the School Log Books which were on display, together with a small exhibition in the church. Some entries, made in the Autumn of 1918, aroused my interest. On 12 September that year, in connection with the Food Commission’s Blackberry Sche...
Early Days at Batford Nursery School
Staff of Batford Nursery School, 1950s – L to R: Mrs Wood, Mrs Bunyan, Miss Jackson (Superintendent), Miss Trim, Mrs Stephens, Nora Bamford, Mrs Kilby. Credit: LHS archives, LHS 002763, from a photo loaned by Mrs I Kilby in 1990 I was appointed as Head of Batford Nursery School when it was not a nursery school but a Wartime Day Nursery under the Ministry of Health, with the understanding that it would become a nursery school under the Ministry of...
More Batford Memories
George Hobbs with Clive just a few months old taken at The Camp Milford Hill Clive Hobbs now lives in Australia, and has been browsing the Harpenden History website: Batford Nursery School, 1950s – LHS 012557 Well, thanks to Geoff Woodward for the article on Batford. I learnt a lot from it that I didn’t know, particularly about the pre 1950s. Reading through it, memories of those early days started to come flooding back. Mr Bingham at Bentleys….....
Some wartime memories
After a long courtship Molly Johnson had planned to marry Robert Andrews on 9 September 1939. She describes the shock in her family home as war was declared. These extracts are from pp.128-138. Not long after the Prime Minister’s announcement, the air-raid siren wailed out for people to take cover. We stood frozen in father’s bedroom, not one of us would leave him [he was paralysed]. Twenty minutes later, the steady tone of the all-clear could be...
Coach Lane Cottage, 39 Leyton Road - 2
This study was first published in Newsletter 116, April 2012 The timber-framed double range on the left, with the 1928 porch and extension on the right – facing Leyton Road – LHS archives – copyright RCHM, 1977 Coach Lane Cottage, also known as Gable End Cottage, consists of an old timber-framed house with, to the north, additions of 1928 comprising a two-storied timber-framed porch and a matching gabled range to give a symmetrical frontage to Le...
Elizabeth Ashby of Piggotts Manor (1710/11 - 1743)
Elizabeth was one of the four surviving children of George Ashby, Haberdasher of London and his wife Ann, the others being Thomas, Austin and Ann. George was the eldest son of Thomas Ashby, Haberdasher of London and Susanna his first wife. Thomas had purchased Piggotts Hill otherwise the Manor of Piggotts in 1698. Elizabeth was born on 3 January 1710/11 and was the second daughter of that name born to George and Ann. The first, born in 1699, died...
Marianne Sherman's Music and Dance manuscripts (1806)
Fly-leaf of the second, larger volume, date 1806 and 1816. Credit: LHS archive – scanms6 In 1981/2 Frank Stageman transcribed the verses and dance routines contained in “Two leather-bound manuscript music books. Both bindings are in poor condition and some pages are loose”, which formed Item 39 of the Hodgson bequest for the future museum of Harpenden, then stored at Harpenden Hall. He wrote a short introduction to the transcription, which is in ...
John 'Cat's Eyes' Cunningham
... Bob Brunton Cunningham is also mentioned on the wheathampstead.net. page in an article entitled "Hatfield airmen leap for life" https://www.wheathampstead.net/history/PlaneCrash.htm which describes how he and Geoffrey De Havilland, chief test pilot, crashed in Gustard Wood. ...
The History of St Nicholas School
The foundation and rapid growth of the Sunday School movement in the late eighteenth century was a most important development in the education system. In Sunday Schools the “children of the poor” were taught reading and writing as well as the Scriptures and there were no fees. In Harpenden, in 1802, John Bennet Lawes (the elder) gave a cottage near St Nicholas Church for a Sunday School. Further to this, in the early nineteenth century two school...
Sports team photos of schools and clubs
SCHOOLS Batford Batford School football team 1957-58 from Vivian Summers In the photo: Mr Tait, teacher; Back row, left to right:- Anthony Golds, Christopher Blomfield, Donald Leask, Graham White, James Bainbridge, Michael Keen; Front row from left:- Robin Powell, David Ottewell, Vivian Summers, Alan Whiting, Terry Bunnage. CLUBS CRICKET Harpenden Cricket Club Credit: F. Thurston Unnamed Cricket team, but see blazers above FOOTBALL Harpenden Rove...
German POWs and their spare time occupations
Toy snake made by German POW from Batford camp. Credit: D. Parrott The page ‘No 95 Batford Prisoner of War Camp‘ tells how there were classes and entertainments etc available for the men to help occupy their time, but some also made small gifts. Anne Esson tells us about POW Gerhard and the bracelet he made for her. Alan Thrussell and his brother were given this toy snake by German POWs who were still in Harpenden after the end of the war. Alan w...
The Old Bell - refurbished June 2014
The origins of the Old Bell as a pub are unclear. Branch Johnson in his 1963 book on Hertfordshire Inns, Part Two, West Herts, records that “In 1735 Robert Juffs paid a poor rate on the Old Bell Ground”, but did the name of the land denote an inn? The entry continues: “In 1835 Matthew Tomalin had a vote in respect of the Old Bell and land belonging to it. Later owned by Bennett, of Dunstable, brewer. Mann.” According to the information board in t...
Harpenden, Hitler and Me
... Jane Holland I lived in this house (no 10) for a while as a child too (post war). How fun to see its history. We used to love watching the trains too. When we moved, it was too quiet to sleep at our new house as there was no huge goods train going past the house during the wee hours! ...
Douglas Bader, RAF Hero
Douglas Bader I know I am getting ‘up along’ now but I seem to remember that the hero of the RAF in WWII lived in Douglas Road, Harpenden on the left hand side entering from Luton Road. This would have been between 1962 and 1965. He died in London in 1982. My wife does not recall this and she used to mark up the papers at Hockaday’s on a daily basis. Does anyone remember whether this was fact or some fault in my memory? Did he live in Harpenden? ...
The Evacuee
The dark cloud over the UK The year of 1939 for me holds many memories. It was the beginning of a new life, which I will try to explain to you. The threat of war was hanging like a dark cloud over the United Kingdom. I remember with horror, watching hundreds of men marching past our house, dressed in a uniform of Black Shirts. The tramp of their feet seemed never ending. They were, I am told, going to a rally which was held in Hyde Park. WWII gas...
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