No.39 High Street is a late Victorian family house on four floors, with steps up to the front door. The house has been under private ownership for much of the last 100 years. The 1901 census records a Samuel Judd (aged 60 at the time) from Islington, in London, living in No. 39 with his wife Sarah, also born in London. Samuel Judd worked from home as an upholsterer and employed several men.
By 1911, Robert William Hawes Seabrook lived in the property with his wife Maude (formerly Godseff), their four children: Stella, Eric, Gerald and Mary, and Rose Folds, a servant from Wheathampstead. Robert, a local Wheathampstead man, was Assistant School Master and at various times was also Assisant Overseer and collector of the poor rate, church organist and clerk to the Parish Council. Robert and Maude named their first child Stella, after Maude's sister, who was married to Frank Chennells who ran Chennells grocery business next door. Maude died in 1936 and in 1938 Robert married Edith Gardner. Robert had lived in this house for over 30 years when he died in 1941, aged 70. Edith continued to live on the High Street for at least another eleven years after Robert's death.
Late in 1915, William Robert (Bob) Simons, who became the local butcher, was born in this house.
In 1942, Charles and Kate Wells took over the property and were residents until 1956 when Charles died aged 75. Kate took in two lodgers for the next couple of years: she died aged 77.
During 1960, the house was empty. In 1961, four lodgers took up residence: Timothy Lawrence, Hubert Malden, Peter Rymer and William Wood. It was during this time that the downstairs rooms became two businesses: an estate agents, and Wood & Rymer solicitors. In 1969, four other lodgers took up residence: Peter and Jillian Haigh living there for a couple of years, together with Jane Smith and Trudy Condon. By 1972, there was no further mention in the Electoral Registers of lodgers in the property. The Black Horse Estate Agents took over the property in 1973. By 1975, the estate agents 'Stimpson, Lock and Vince' occupied No. 39 but by 2000, the property was empty again.
In 2004 'Master Moves' Estate Agents (owned by Nick Masters) took over the premises. In July 2013, Nick Masters became a Director of 'Cassidy & Tate' Estate Agents and that company now trades out of No. 39, High Street, together with two other small businesses.
RESEARCHER: Jacky Edwards
REFERENCES:
Ancestry.co.uk
Kelly's Directories
Census 1891, 1901, 1911
Electoral Registers
Interview with Bob Simon's daughter (Diana Davies)
