Bulletins

Bulletins

The Society publishes a monthly bulletin up to ten times a year. Each bulletin has a section about 'News and events' followed by a short article about an aspect of the history of Wheathampstead, researched and written by a member of the Society. Each of these could be the basis for more substantial research.

Printed copies of each bulletin are distributed at the Society's meetings.

To read a bulletin online, click on its title.

	2025
Number	Date	Subject	Abstract
77	January	Sarah Thrale's estate	Old auction particulars are often a mine of information for the local historian and the 1870 auction particulars for the sale of the “Valuable Estate” of Sarah Thrale are no exception. Born in Kimpton in 1804, she married Henry Sibley in 1834. He was owner of the house in the High Street that we now know as White Cottage with the Maltings Restaurant behind, together with a number of arable fields in various parts of the parish. He died in 1848 and Sarah married William Thrale, a baker, in 1852. The particulars state that the Valuable Estate is known as “Malting Farm” and include the “Genteel Residence” (White Cottage) with the 10 quarter malting, about 71 acres of “very superior arable and pasture land”, and “14 cottages & gardens” in East Lane. The land is, again, in various areas of the parish and can be identified via its references in the 1841 title schedule. Interestingly, all these fields had other owners in 1841 which suggests that Sarah Thrale was a keen buyer of land as it became available.
78	February
79	March
80	April
81	May
82	June
83	July
84	September
85	October
86	November
	2024
67	January	Wheathampstead.net	Nearly 25 years ago, Wheathampstead resident Brian Joyce began to build a community website for the village. This became known by its address, 'Wheathampstead.net' and developed into an important source of information about local events and the many businesses and voluntary groups in the village, and a major repository of material about the history of Wheathampstead with particular emphasis on families and people. When the site went offline after Brian passed away, all this content was saved by the History Society. It has been converted to a suitable format and will be uploaded to the Society's website in the coming months.
68	February	Three lives	The Garrard family are well known locally. They owned the Lamer estate from 1608 until Apsley Cherry-Garrard sold up in 1945. What is less well-known is that, as well as running the large Lamer estate, the Garrards also leased the whole of Wheathampstead manor from Westminster Abbey who had been lord of the manor since 1060 when Edward the Confessor gifted it to Westminster. The Garrards managed the Wheathampsteadbury farm estate and also the mill. Documents in the Westminster Abbey archive may suggest that the Garrards held this lease from the early 1610s until at least 1685.
69	March	Chairmen	Wheathampstead Parish Council was established in 1895 when the duties of the centuries-old Vestry were divided between the secular Parish Council and the Parochial Church Council. A new list of past chairmen of the Parish Council is in the hallway of the refurbished Marford Memorial Hall. They are an interestingly mixed bunch.
70	April	Isaac House (1757-1794)	We are grateful to Mike Martin for his generous gift to the History Society of an account book dated June 1794 that relates to the House family of Wheathampstead. He acquired this from an antiquarian bookseller in York. The accounts are concerned with the proving of the will of wealthy landowner Isaac House who had died on 5 April 1794 at the age of 37. He was owner of the Grove Farm in Pipers Lane with its malthouse, barns, stables and outhouses, arable land, orchards, fields and woods. His wife died just three weeks later aged 27. They had been married for only two years and left two infant children, John Isaac and Mary Ann. The original will document is held at HALS.
71	May	Straw Hat Day	May 15 is “Straw Hat Day” in the USA. In the mid-19th century, the peak production of straw hats, and the straw plaits from which they were made, was in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire where this cottage industry dated from at least the 18^th century. In Wheathampstead in 1851, 31% of the total occupied population were straw workers, nearly all of whom were plaiters, only 28 being described as hat-makers or sewers. For much of the 19^th century, many children attended “plait schools”, producing plait to be sold by their parents who paid as little as a penny a week for their plaiting “education”.
72	June	The missing Thorp of Wheathampstead	Until recently, historians thought that the placename 'Thorp', as in Mablethorpe and Scunthorpe, was associated with the Danelaw and referred to a minor settlement. However, there is also an Old English version 'Throp'. Gover et al. The Placenames of Hertfordshire (1938) says that "... the placenames Thropfeld, Thropmulle and Thropmanland have been noted in Wheathampstead, pointing to a lost thorp or throp in that parish." In this bulletin, Mike Smith suggests where it may have been located.
73	July	Sir Samuel Garrard at the Old Bailey	Sir Samuel Garrard, 4^th baronet, inherited the estate of Lamer in 1701. He was an established merchant in the City of London. In 1709 he was appointed as the Lord Mayor of London for a year, where one of his duties was to sit on the judges' bench at the Central Criminal Court of the Old Bailey though he did not participate in the hearings. He will have witnessed at first hand the era of the ‘Bloody Code' when punishments, including branding with a hot iron, were harsh and the death sentence was imposed for a wide range of offences, some of them trivial by today's standards. The odds were stacked against the defendants whose impotence, insignificance and disgrace contrasted strikingly with Sir Samuel's power and status.
74	September	An unusual burial	William Alsup Grigg, who had been the tenant of Castle Farm since 1845, sadly committed suicide in 1860. A report of the inquest was published in The Hertford Mercury where it was stated that he “indulged too freely in drink”. On the night in question, he had retired to bed at 7 o'clock and soon afterwards was found to have shot himself. The jury found that the deceased “Shot himself with a pistol while in an unsound state of mind”. An Act of Parliament in 1823 allowed that suicides could be buried privately in a churchyard but only at night and without a Christian service. William Grigg was buried in February 1860, presumably at night, in the churchyard at St Helen's. A discreet gravestone now marks the spot.
75	October	Tommy Parsloe	Muriel "Tommy" Parsloe, who was gamekeeper on Nomansland in the 1930s, led a remarkable life which she described in her autobiography "A Parson's Daughter". Born Muriel Jardine in 1881, she wore men's clothes all her life. Involved with horses, shooting and hunting from childhood, she took a job as a man in Ireland when she was 20, then worked in England as a horse-breaker, married Stanley Parsloe, moved to Australia as farmer and horse-breaker, returned to England and ran a bus service in Wiltshire, emigrated to Canada to farm 25 acres of land, was burned out, returned to England again and moved to a cottage on Nomansland when her husband took a job as gamekeeper and bailiff. After Stanley died, she took over his job and became known locally as "Bill of Nomansland". She died aged 81 in Sussex in 1962.
76	November	Christmas in Wheathampstead	Five shillings doesn't sound much to spend on a Christmas party but it was a lot of money in 1275 so it's likely that a good time was had by all at the Wheathampstead manor staff Christmas party 749 years ago. How do we know this? Because we've had the reeve's account for that year translated from the medieval Latin. The reeve was appointed by Westminster Abbey to manage Wheathampstead manor for them and had to present his accounts to the visiting monk-bailiff for auditing once a year. The account tells us that Alfred the reeve spent five shillings on beer and meat for the party. Five shillings in the early thirteenth century would have paid the wages of a skilled tradesman. How many workers would have attended the party? Other evidence suggests there may have been eighty to a hundred people so perhaps five shillings wasn't so generous.

	2023
57	January	A missing legend?	Many churchyards in Hertfordshire have 18^th or 19^th century table tombs surrounded by iron railings. In some cases, a tree has grown inside these railings and this has given rise to a legend that the individual buried there was an atheist who declared before decease that if there was an afterlife a tree would grow out of their tomb. In the mid-1970s, there stood on the north side of St Helen's Church a magnificent ash tree which had demolished a table tomb and devoured portions of its railings. Today the spot is marked only by the tree stump and smashed grave slabs. Is there a local legend associated with this tree?
58	February	Des Thomas	John Desmond Thomas was headmaster of Wheathampstead School from the day it opened in 1965 until he retired in 1986. ‘Des' was born in Llan Ffestiniog, North Wales, in 1926, the third of seven children. He won a place at grammar school and, after serving as a Bevan boy, he was awarded a degree at Bangor Normal College and a scholarship at the Sorbonne. Following two teaching jobs in London, he was appointed Head at Wheathampstead at the age of 39.
59	March	The Thrale family	These initials and the date (1893), which can be seen on the east-facing wall of the mill, are those of Norman Thrale (1832-1900). The earliest record of the Thrale family dates from 1309 and they owned various farms in the district from the 16^th to the 19^th centuries. Norman worked as a miller and stonemason at Wheathampstead Mill and probably worked on the cladding of the mill in brick in the 1890s.
60	April	Doodlebug	‘At 01.45 hours this morning a Flying Bomb burst 60 yds West of Bury Farm house. Damage was caused but there were no casualties.' This entry appears in the St Helen's School logbook dated 27 June 1944. It goes on to describe the damage to the school buildings (broken windows, roof damage, cracks in ceilings and ‘bell turret moved'). It is the only contemporary record we have of this major incident in Wheathampstead's war but it was clearly remembered by local people in later years.
61	May	10th Earl of Cavan	Frederick Rudolph Lambart, 10th Earl of Cavan, (1865- 1946) was a distinguished past resident of Wheathampstead with a remarkable military career from 2nd Lieutenant in 1885 to Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1922 and Field Marshal in 1932, but he certainly divided opinion. “Bone from the neck up”, “Ignorant, pompous, vain and narrow”, “Undoubtedly one of the great successes of the war”. He lived in Wheathampstead House for most of his life and, when not on active service, led the classic life of a Victorian/Edwardian gentleman with a focus on hunting, shooting, fishing and golf.
62	June	Devil's Dyke	The debate about the origins of Devil's Dyke and its place in history has continued ever since Sir Mortimer Wheeler published his conclusions from excavations he made in and near the Dyke in 1932, reinforced by post-war Ordnance Survey maps describing the site as a “Belgic Oppidum”. This bulletin summarises the research of historians and archaeologists in recent years, including the latest evidence from LiDAR, all of which cast doubt on Wheeler's suggestion that the Dyke was the site of a battle between Julius Caesar and Cassivellaunus, leader of the Catuvellauni, in 54 BCE. The debate highlights the issue of how legends and myths relate to and should be balanced with historical evidence.
63	July	Pubs in the 1930s	Our book about the history of the pubs of Wheathampstead ended in 1914 but sales figures for fourteen of these pubs in 1936/7 have recently come to light. The figures provide a firm understanding of the hierarchy of the trade at that time. Sorted by barrels sold, the figures show the Swan at the top of the list, selling most beer for consumption in the pub itself. And that by a long distance when compared with its competitors in the village, especially the Bell & Crown. Sales at the Bull were surprisingly low.
64	September	The Palm-cup	The most important historic relic ever found in Wheathampstead is probably the 7^th century bronze ewer that is now in the British Museum, recorded as having been found in 1887. Society member Ray Wilson has been researching a much less well-known object, a palm-cup that apparently was found at the same time as the ewer. Basing his conclusion on evidence in a number of documents, Ray surmises that the Wheathampstead palm-cup was found in fragments in December 1884 by the Griffith brothers from Sandridge, was restored by them, and reunited with the Wheathampstead Ewer at the British Museum in 1910. Which prompts a question. The ewer and the palm-cup were found in “a considerable cemetery of Saxon times”. What else was there and has been lost forever?
65	October	100 years ago	October 1923 was a busy month at St Helen's School, as recorded in the school logbook. There were visits by His Majesty's Inspector, the Chief Education Officer, the rector, the Diocesan Inspector and at least six school governors. Entries in the school logbook suggests that this level of interest was prompted by a highly critical HMI report in July 1922 at a time when the headmaster, Thomas Clark, had been absent for some time. He returned to work in September 1922. Itmust have been a relief to all concerned that the next reports by His Majesty's Inspector and the Diocesan Inspector were much more positive and supportive.
66	November	William Beach Thomas	William Beach Thomas lived at Place Farm and then in Gustard Wood from 1923 to 1957. After a brief career in teaching, he became a journalist and was war correspondent for The Daily Mail during World War One. He complained that the censors would not publish any article that told the truth of what was happening at the front. He later regretted his reports from the Battle of the Somme saying "I was thoroughly and deeply ashamed of what I had written for the good reason that it was untrue". He later wrote articles on gardening and country life, including in and around Wheathampstead, for The Observer and The Spectator as well as a total of 18 books.

Number	Date	Subject	Abstract
	2017
1	June	Bury House	Bury House was a 16th century building that stood on the site of what is now Thomas Sparrow House on Brewhouse Hill. It burned down in November 1969 in suspicious circumstances but an official investigation could not establish the cause.
2	July	Peace Day riot in Luton	'Peace Day' on 19 July 1919 was celebrated with parades and civic events in many towns but there was also widespread discontent about high levels of unemployment among ex-servicemen. In Luton, disputes about the celebrations culminated in a riot during which the Town Hall was burned down.
3	September	Barnes/Dorrington gravestone	This gravestone in St Helen's churchyard carries two names: Sarah Dorrington and Marian Barnes. Sarah Dorrington was an unmarried sister-in-law to the brewer William Higby Lattimore and Marian, who was nearly 40 years younger than Sarah and also unmarried, lived at their house, Lattimore's, for at least 30 years.
4	October	Bert Cobb	Albert Cobb was born in Gustard Wood in 1904. He was a gardener at Delaport and attended St Albans Art School for two evenings a week to learn figure drawing. He started the Serenaders concert party in 1933 and a dancing group after the war. In his eighties, he started drawing scenes from his childhood. This bulletin was written by his daughter, Rita Cobb, who has a collection of his drawings.
5	November	Percy's Cross	While updating the Herts Family History Society's survey of the graves in St Helen's churchyard, Margaret and Terry Pankhurst found this cross, inscribed 'Percy R Smith, died 30 October 1911, aged 12'. Their research found that he was the youngest son of a single mother in St Albans who, in 1911, was boarding with Mr and Mrs Tomlin in Wheathampstead. The St Helen's school logbook records that he died of diphtheria.
	2018
6	January	Blackbridge Tip	In the 1920s and 1930s, the Islington borough of North London sent its rubbish by rail to be dumped at Blackbridge Tip. The resulting smell was so bad that George Bernard Shaw, who lived at nearby Ayot St Lawrence, likened it to Stromboli, Etna, Vesuvius and Hell. Despite his complaints, the tip was not closed until the 1970s.
7	February	Maps of Wheathampstead	The 1060 charter describes the boundaries of the manor of Wheathampstead but the earliest map is that of Thomas Yeoman in 1758. Dury and Andrews (1766) map of Hertfordshire provides some local detail and Mumford (1799) mapped the manor for Westminster Abbey. The 1840 Tithe Map and apportionment shows landowners, tenants and land usage. The earliest Ordnance Survey maps of Wheathampstead date from the 1870s.
8	March	Passive resisters	The 1902 Education Act resulted in Church of England schools, such as St Helen's, receiving public funds for the first time. Nonconformists resisted the idea that they should subsidise church schools and refused to pay part of their rates. Wheathampstead nonconformists were enthusiastic 'Passive Resisters' and had some of their goods seized and sold at auction in lieu of rates.
9	April	The Hoopers of The Bull	William Hooper took the licence of The Bull in 1818. It was subsequently held by his widow, three of his daughters and two sons-in-law until 1895 when the licence passed out of the family. Fourteen members of the Hooper family are buried in a group in the churchyard at St Helen's.
10	May	Rose Lane and Waddling Lane	The unmade road now known as Rose Lane was called 'Oxcutt Lane' in medieval times and was the first part of a road that led northwest to Mackerye End and Luton. It was called 'Occupation Road' in 1872. The area round the modern Waddling Lane was called 'Wadelslane' in a document dated 1315, 'Waddleing Close' in the 1758 Yeoman map and 'Waddling Close' in the 1840 Tithe Map.
11	June	19th century incendiarists	Setting fire to barley and wheat stacks seems to have been a popular activity in Wheathampstead in the late 19th century. Reports of such fires and the response of the fire brigade often appeared in the Herts Advertiser. In 1884, Lord Kilcoursie, who was captain of the fire brigade, appealed for funds for new equipment such as hoses and fire hooks.
12	July	The Reading Rooms	In 1859, there were 30 pubs in the parish of Wheathampstead-with-Harpenden; the population was less than 2,000. According to the newly-appointed rector, Canon Davys, 'dishonesty, immorality and everything that was bad were common'. He founded a branch of the Church of England Temperance Society in 1879 and in 1883 opened a teetotal Library and Reading Room in the premises now occupied by The Reading Rooms, a micro-pub.
13	September	Wheathampstead Air Display	The people of Wheathampstead enjoyed an Air Display in 1935, 'by kind permission of the Hertfordshire Flying Club and the friendly assistance of the De Havilland Flying School'. Spectators enjoyed an Air Rally, Aerobatics, 'Six Gun Bill' and an Air Race, plus some other attractions.
14	October	Commemorating the Great War	Wheathampstead History Society, Wheathampstead Churches Together and Wheathampstead Parish Council worked together to commemorate the end of the Great War, with an exhibition in the Memorial Hall (see below), a Reflective Trail in St Helen's Church, and a special edition of The Pump.
15	November	Great War exhibition	More than 1,200 people visited the Society's Great War Exhibition which included a display of books from Wheathampstead Community Library, tea and cake provided by the WI, and a concert by the Clover Singing Club. To view the posters displayed at the exhibition, click here.
	2019
16	January	19th century timber auctions	Managing and selling timber was an important part of the 19th century rural economy and many advertisements for auctions of timber appeared in the Herts Advertiser. Mature trees were sometimes sold 'pre-felled', ie while they were still standing, sometimes felled and lying in the woods, and sometimes ready sawn in a timber yard. Each type of tree had a particular use. Elm, for example, was used for wheel hubs, tool handles and wheelbarrows among other things.
17	February	Nomansland in the 19th century	Two photographs of the main road across Nomansland, taken in 1910, show how much the countryside has changed in the last hundred years. In particular, there were far fewer trees and much more open heathland. As animal grazing died out during the 20th century, so scrub and trees began to spread across the common.
18	March	John Bunyan's chimney	John Bunyan's Chimney stands in Coleman Green Lane, off the Marford Road. In 1882, members of the St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society (the Arc and Arc) included it in a tour of local historical sites. Dr Griffith, vicar of Sandridge, gave a talk, reported at length in the Herts Advertiser, in which he concluded that the original cottage had definitely been visited by 'the famous John Bunyan'.
19	April	Peggy Cory Wright	'The First Lady of Wheathampstead' moved with her husband Douglas to Four Limes in 1932. She was local organiser for the Women's Voluntary Service, president of the local branches of the Red Cross and the British Legion, and a parish, district and county councillor. She and her husband moved to Mackerye End in 1951. In 1963 she served a term as Lord High Sheriff of Hertfordshire and was made a County Alderman. The village bypass is named after her. She died in 1987.
20	May	The story of Thomas Cockle	An 18th century document in the National Archive shows that the rector, church wardens and overseers of the poor of Wheathampstead entered a plea for clemency for Thomas Cockle of Wheathampstead who had been sentenced to death for stealing five sheep and three lambs. He was hanged despite the plea, leaving a widow, Mary, and five children. Mary died two years later leaving four orphan children of whom at least three were less than 10 years old.
21	June	Pevsner's Hertfordshire	The third edition of Pevsner's 'Hertfordshire' was published in March 2019. Revised and updated from earlier editions in 1953 and 1977, with a great deal of new material, it includes descriptions of St Helen's Church, the High Street, six of Wheathampstead's great houses, John Bunyan's Chimney and Devil's Dyke.
22	September	Portrait of Joseph Rolph	Joseph Rolph was born in Kimpton in 1808. He married Hannah Wilsher in 1839 and they spent their married life in Gustard Wood where Joseph worked as an agricultural labourer and Hannah as a straw plaiter. Hannah died in 1895 and Joseph in 1898. The portrait photograph was taken in St Helen's Church by Frederick Thurston, a distinguished professional photographer, and was published in the Herts Advertiser in March 1898 with the caption 'A Wheathampstead Worthy'.
23	October	The Old Bakery	Following unauthorised work on this Grade II listed building, a detailed report by Archaeological Solutions Ltd, showed that the back parts of the building date from the late 16th century, while the three gabled sections at the front are a mix of 17th, 18th and 19th century construction with some 20th century repairs.
24	November	Victoria County History	The Society has acquired a set of the four volumes of the Victoria County History of Hertfordshire together with the index volume. The History was published between 1902 and 1914 with the Index following in 1923. It includes sections about the natural history of the county, its early history, sports, schools, earthworks, agriculture, social and economic history, industry, and the topography of each of the eight hundreds, including a description of each parish and the history of every manor.
	2020
25	January	First meeting of the Parish Council	Wheathampstead Parish Council held its first meeting on 2 January 1895. Councillors included Reverend Owen Davys, George Titmuss and Apsley Cherry-Garrard (senior). During its first year, subjects for discussion included allotments, the fire engine, the James Marshall charity, footpaths, sewerage, and the widening of Mill Bridge.
26	February	Murder at the pub - fake news?	When searching the online British Newspaper Archive for items about Wheathampstead, Jon Mein came across a report in the Salisbury Journal of 15 April 1765 about a somewhat gruesome murder said to have taken place in a pub in Wheathampstead. However, online searches of the Assize records at the National Archives, coroners' bills at HALS, and burial records at Wheathampstead produced no records of any such event. Was this an early example of fake news?
27	April	Oddfellows	The Wheathampstead branch of Oddfellows flourished in the village from 1844 to 1980, fulfilling its role as a friendly society and charitable organisation. From 1912 until 1948 the Oddfellows was an Approved Society administering National Insurance contributions and benefits on behalf of the state, alongside its friendly society role providing sickness and death benefits, widows' and orphans' pensions and medical treatment for members and their dependants on a voluntary basis.
28	May	Old and new style dates	This gravestone in St Helen's churchyard commemorates Thomas Streete. The inscription tells us that he 'departed this life the 4th day of March 1716/17 in the 60th year of his age'. The apparent uncertainty about the year in which he died is explained by Britain's belated transition from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar which, though initiated by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, did not take place in Britain until 1752.
29	June	The four mills of Wheathampstead?	Many writers have repeated the story that, according to Domesday, there were four mills in the parish of Wheathampstead, located at Wheathampstead, Batford, Pickford and Hyde. In fact, Domesday does not record where these mills were located, nor how they were powered. In this bulletin, Mike Smith looks at the evidence and concludes that 'our thousand-year legacy of milling on four sites is distinctly shaky'.
30	July	The Westwoods of Wheathampstead	Harry Westwood, the subject of this portrait, came from a family of blacksmiths and beerhouse keepers. Harry's father, James, took the licence of the Two Brewers in Wheathampstead in the late 19th century, together with the smithy behind. Harry and his sons Alf and Ted worked as blacksmiths in the village, first in Bull Yard and later in the building on The Meads, until late in the 20th century. Members of the family still live in the village today. Ted's daughter Sandi has presented this portrait, together with a portrait of Ted, to the Society.
31	August	Heritage	Wheathampstead has a rich heritage of historic areas, sites and buildings. This bulletin describes some of the ways in which this heritage is documented and protected, including conservation areas, character areas, national listing, local listing and the Hertfordshire Historic Environment Record.
32	September	The sword in the tree	Generations of children have spotted the 'sword in the tree' in St Helen's churchyard and some may have dreamed that it was our local version of the sword in the stone from the legend of King Arthur. Terry Pankhurst has unearthed the true story behind this historic relic and it is no less interesting.
33	October	The Lattimore snuff box	Charles Higby Lattimore (1808-1889) lived at Bride Hall and Wheathampstead Place (Place Farm) and was an active campaigner for the repeal of the Corn Law. Following a speech he made at Hertford in 1843, the 'tradesmen, mechanics and working men' of Hertford presented him with this solid silver snuff box.
34	November	Private brewing in the 1700s	Before the boom in commercial brewing that followed the 1830 Beerhouse Act, most breweries were privately owned. In this bulletin, Jon Mein shows that a reading of their wills reveals how two men of Wheathampstead, Isaac House and Francis Sibley, brewed beer to supply their inns, The Swan and The Bell respectively.
35	December	Garden House	Garden House stood for nearly 100 years on the corner of Lamer Lane and Lower Luton Road, by the roundabout at the northern end of Station Road. It was built in the mid-1870s on land owned by the then-owner of Wheathampstead House, Reverend John Olive. His daughter Mary married Viscount Kilcoursie who later inherited the title 9th Earl Cavan and both houses. It was occupied by a series of distinguished tenants until sold to Albert Murphy in about 1930; he used it as offices for the Murphy Chemical Company after the Second World War. It was demolished at the end of the 1960s to make way for Garden Court.
	2021
36	January	Visiting Mackerye End	Some two hundred years ago, the writer Charles Lamb and his sister Mary found inspiration in the country lanes around Wheathampstead, in particular at the farmhouse at Mackerye End. Charles was a mere four years of age and in the care of his sister, older by eleven years, at the time of their first visit in 1779. He later claimed that this visit was his earliest memory and led to a lifelong love of Hertfordshire. In adult life, he sought to “escape dry drudgery at the desk's dead wood” whenever he could and got away from the “rushing tides of greasy citizenry” to the “rural solitudes” of the Hertfordshire countryside. Charles and Mary revisited Mackerye End in June 1815, nearly 40 years later, trying to recapture past memories of innocence and pleasure. Charles described this later visit in his essay Mackery End.
37	February	St Helen's revealed	In this month's bulletin, Mike Smith summarises a recent paper by Daniel Secker of the Institute of Archaeology at UCL that throws new light on the early history of St Helen's Church. Working from clues in the archaeology, architecture and documented history of the church, Secker suggests that the earlier Saxon church was rebuilt in an unusual cruciform style in the late 11th century by the Abbey of Westminster, lords of the manor, as a small minster church providing outreach for the other six manors that Westminster held in Hertfordshire. The design, with its apsidal east end, is a smaller version of Westminster Abbey. Secker's original paper can be found on the 'Sources' page of this website.
38	March	Town Farm	In one of the most notorious events in the recent history of Wheathampstead, 15th century Town Farm was demolished on Saturday 8 May 1971. Unlike several other buildings in the village, it was not listed. A Temporary Preservation Order was posted to the owner, Maltglade Developments, on Tuesday 4 May but the postman could not deliver it because Maltglade had not put up a sign on their premises to confirm that it was their registered office, as is legally required. While St Albans Magistrates Court later convicted Maltglade of demolishing a preserved building, this verdict was overturned in the High Court.
39	April	Chennells account book	Among our archives is an enormous ledger, a gift from Wally Overman (born 1910) who worked at the Blackbridge Dump from 1935 to 1978.The ledger includes 144 pages of accounts, dating from 1902 to 1920, compiled by Mr Chennells the village grocer. They list every individual item, its cost, and the date when it was bought by his few account-holding customers, among whom are some interesting names including Mary Countess of Cavan, Rev. O.W. Davys and A. Harmsworth Esq., later Lord Northcliffe, the powerful press baron. Accounts like these are an important source for local history and can raise almost as many questions as answers.
40	May	Wheathampstead schools	Beech Hyde School celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021. This bulletin describes some of the earliest schools in the village, ranging from the Place School, which was recorded in 1689, to Gustard Wood School which opened in 1875 as a result of overcrowding in the original St Helen's School at Bury Green and closed in 1932 when new premises were opened for 11-14 year olds on the site of the existing St Helen's School.
41	June	Boundaries	If the new Boundary Commission proposals are approved Wheathampstead will no longer be part of the Harpenden and Hitchin ward for parliamentary elections but will join a new ward called ‘Berkhamsted and Harpenden'. While the geography of the new ward sounds unlikely there is an historic precedent. Wheathampstead was once part of the Danish Hundred that shares close similarities to the new ward. According to the Domesday book, Hertfordshire was divided into eight Hundreds. The Danish Hundred, later called Dacorum, was made up of 18 manors and Wheathampstead was rated the most valuable.
42	July	Allotments	In one form or another, allotments have been a feature of the English landscape for hundreds of years, possibly from as far back as the Anglo-Saxon period, but the arrangements in force today, whereby local councils manage the system, have their origins in the 19th century. Wheathampstead Parish Council rents two allotment sites: Hitchens Field on Marford Road, rented from Hertfordshire County Council since 1919, and the neighbouring Glebe Field, rented from the Diocese of St Albans. The Council owns the allotments at The Folly and at The Slype in Gustard Wood, which are known as Baxendale allotments because the plot was owned by the Baxendales of Blackmore End who let it to the Council early in the 20th century.
43	September	Crinkly old paper	The National Archives website lists nearly 270 medieval documents about Wheathampstead. Many of these documents are reeves' annual accounts dating to the 13th and 14th century. The reeve was elected from the local peasant farmers and had the task of overseeing the manor and reporting back to the Abbot of Westminster. The reeves' accounts contain fascinating information about the medieval manor including details of the rents paid by the tenants, who are named, and the fines and charges levied on them. Most of these documents are held at HALS. Mike Smith has been doing a scoping exercise to see what the reeves' accounts look like and exploring the possibility of setting up a project to translate and interpret these important medieval documents.
44	October	The Hill	A recent application to build a terrace of three houses at the top of the east side of The Hill, behind nos.97-105, is the latest development in the long history of building in this part of Wheathampstead. On the east side, the Tithe Map of 1840 shows 15th century Town Farm and the first few houses at the bottom of The Hill, which date from the 17th century, and just two cottages between there and the King William (now The Wicked Lady). The arrival of the railway in Wheathampstead in 1860 transformed the local economy, making the area more attractive as a place to live and work. Several plots of land on both sides of The Hill were sold for building and development in the second half of the 19th century. By 1911 the houses and cottages on The Hill between Town Farm and the King William accommodated 46 households.
45	November	John Nash	The Congregational Church on Brewhouse Hill, which is being converted into the Chapel Gym, has a number of stained glass windows. Most are in good condition but one is broken. Research has found that it was dedicated to the memory of Robert Smith and John Nash, respectively father and husband of Sarah Nash. John Nash was born at The Folly in 1876, fourth of eight children of Jabez and Hannah Nash. Aged 14, he was working as a ploughman but later became a fireman on the railway. He married Sarah Smith, a local girl, in 1903. They lived in Hendon where he worked as a stoker in a Poor Law asylum and she as a dressmaker. They returned to Wheathampstead in 1922 where John died aged 47 two years later. He left an estate valued for probate at £1,632 9s.1d., roughly equivalent to £100,000 today. Sarah died in 1942 leaving £2,952 6s.1d, equivalent to about £150,000 today. Research is needed to establish how a couple coming from humble origins left such large estates.
46	December	Saving Barton House	The Brewhouse Cafe and Wheathampstead Wellbeing Centre occupy Barton House on Brewhouse Hill. The building dates from the 1780s and operated as a brewery until 1904. By 1908 it was occupied by residential tenants along with the three adjoining cottages. In 1938, the St Albans Rural District Council served it with a Clearance Order, requiring that it be demolished on the grounds that it was unfit for human habitation. The Order was deferred until after the war by which time Charlie Collins was using part of the building for his antiques business. He fought a campaign to preserve Barton House for use as a store and showroom for his business and with no residential usage. His efforts were finally rewarded in 1959 when permission was granted; Charlie repaired and refurbished the whole structure, including the underground tunnel, in the 1960s. Barton House was listed Grade II in 1971.
	2022
47	January	Burn marks at The Bull	The marks in the photograph are on the mantle over the fireplace in The Bull inn in Wheathampstead. The mantle is part of the original 16th century timber frame of the building. Archaeologists of medieval and early modern buildings have made detailed studies of such marks. They have ruled out explanations such as the marks having been made by unattended candles or that they were made by hot pokers used to mull ale. They have concluded that the marks, which are most often found near openings such as doors, windows and hearths, are 'apotropaic', i.e. that they were made with the intention of averting the forces of evil by preventing evil spirits from entering the building.
48	February	Wheathampstead House	Wheathampstead House, which stands at the junction of Lamer Lane and Codicote Road by the roundabout, has a chequered history. Dury and Andrews map (1766) shows the site with a few small buildings and gardens. The 1840 tithe map shows a house occupying three sides of a square. In 1867, when the house was sold to the Reverend John Olive, rector of Ayot St Lawrence, it was described as a 'Small family residence' with five bedrooms and seven acres of gardens. This house was demolished sometime between 1867 and 1879 when the Ordnance Survey map shows a much larger house and gardens which were further extended in the next 40 years. The 9th Earl Cavan, John Olive's son-in-law, and his son the 10th Earl lived in the house until selling it in 1924. Having been the HQ of Murphy Chemical Ltd from 1940 to 1983, it was redeveloped in the early 1990s as offices for Polaroid UK. Since 2003, it has been the home of the Prep School of St Albans High School for Girls.
49	March	Gerald Lee	Gerald Lee was stationmaster in Wheathampstead from 1934 to 1957.The October 1939 LNER 'Return of staff employed' lists him as ‘Station master 4th class' earning £230 per annum and paying rent of 13/3 per week to live at Station House. He was a stalwart of the village community. As a dedicated Christian, he was actively involved in St Peter's Church in Gustard Wood and at St Helen's. He was lay reader at both churches and organist and choirmaster at St Helen's from 1941 to 1963, the longest serving organist in the history of the parish. He founded Wheathampstead Youth Club in 1941 and was Club President and Chairman of the management committee. He died aged 76 in March 1968 having been struck by a motor car in Marford Road.
50	April	Rectory Meadow	At the end of March, Kris Lockyear, with members of the Community Archaeological Geophysics group (CAGG) and the Wheathampstead History Society, spent a day conducting a magnetometer survey of the Rectory Meadow. The survey was prompted by a visiting archaeologist who some years ago suggested that the ditch and bank that run parallel to the east of the Crinkle-Crankle wall might be the boundary of the Saxon settlement. The survey found no buildings or evidence of other activity, either Saxon or later. Perversely, finding nothing adds to the evidence because it suggests that the meadow was outside the envelope of the early medieval village. It backs up the idea that the ditch and bank, now overgrown and partially eroded, could be part of the defences of the early village.
51	May	Bury Farm	The names ‘Bury Green' and ‘Bury Farm Cottages' are the last traces of what was once the major farm in Wheathampstead; its origins date from the transfer of the manor of Wheathampstead to the Abbey of Westminster in the 11th century. The Yeoman map shows the layout of the farm buildings in 1758. The farmhouse was in what we now know as Bury Farm Cottages until the late 1870s when a new farmhouse was built further up the hill. Having changed hands several times, the farmhouse and the surrounding land were sold to Jarvis of Harpenden in the late 1960s and the whole area was developed as housing.
52	June	Jubilee is in the air	There have been only eight Royal Jubilees: George III (1), Victoria (2), George V (1), and Elizabeth II (4, including this month). Although fourteen British monarchs have reigned for more than twenty-five years, it was not until the reign of George III that a 'National Jubilee Celebration' was proposed and it was not until Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee that the now familiar assortment of souvenirs was produced. The mug on the left was made for George V's Silver Jubilee in 1935. It has 'Wheathampstead' stamped on the bottom. Was such a stamp unique to Wheathampstead or were many such mugs produced with a local stamp?
53	July	Shopping in 1912	The Wheathampstead Parish Magazine in January 1912 was full of fascinating advertisements for local businesses, showing how the village had a full range of shops catering for basic needs like bread and meat as well as clothing, cars and saddlery. Cobb's bakery had been established for more than 60 years and George Simons' shop had been supplying villagers with meat since 1840. W.H.Goodall sold all kinds of footwear as well as hymn and prayer books and Mr Wren, the coachbuilder, had a sideline in antiques though Fred Collins' business was much larger; he also offered furniture for hire and a removals service. C.Latchford was hairdresser and tobacconist and also sold toiletries, walking sticks, umbrellas, birthday and Christmas cards and spectacles 'to suit all sights'.
54	September	1776 letter	An intriguing item turned up at an auction in Cheshire on 10 September 2022. Lot 469 was a letter dated 17 November 1776 and addressed to “William Lee Esq. at the Rev. Mr Wheeldon's at Wheathampstead, St Albans, Herts”. Posted in Hartwell, Northamptonshire, it was from William Lee's father, also named William. What was the connection between the Lee family and the Rev. John Wheeldon, rector from 1773 to 1800, who lived in the Old Rectory in today's King Edward Place? The letter includes some local news but also the good news that “this day” they had heard that the boy's Uncle Harcourt had landed safely in New York after the King's Troops had taken possession of it. More research is needed. What was the link between William Lee and Rev.Wheeldon? Who exactly was Uncle Harcourt? What was his experience in the American War of Independence and afterwards?
55	October	Crinkle-crankle walls	Visitors to Wheathampstead are frequently intrigued by the crinkle-crankle walls in our village. These crinkle-crankle or serpentine walls are unusual and their origin dates back thousands of years. Serpentine walls feature in a number of Egyptian cities and were used extensively in the architecture of Aten, a ‘lost golden city', 3,400 years old. In England the first serpentine walls appeared in East Anglia in the seventeenth century, Most English crinkle-crankle walls are in Suffolk, which claims at least 50 examples, twice as many as in the whole of the rest of the country. Many were built to run from east to west so that the alcoves on one side faced south, providing a wind break, catching the sun and making the cultivation of fragile and exotic fruits such as apricots, peaches and grapes possible. The walls in Wheathampstead run north to south so do not attract as much sun. They may be in this style because they were built on marshy ground.
56	November	Freda Bates	The Society's archive includes three school exercise books containing the hand-written childhood memories of Freda Bates (née Jones) who was born in Gustard Wood on 29 March 1903. Freda's memories of her childhood are simply idyllic. Gustard Wood was ‘a child's paradise … we had ponds to paddle in, sand bunkers to play in, and trees to climb'. Living there was like having ‘an island to ourselves … almost self-contained' with two shops, two shoe-repairers, several pubs, the school and, from 1910, St Peter's Church. At the age of 14, Freda was found to ‘have one shoulder higher than the other' and was sent to the orthopaedic hospital in Baschurch, Shropshire where she was fitted with a plaster of Paris jacket from hips to neck. She describes the fitting of the jacket in painful detail: "we had strips of canvas wound round us with long ends which were attached to the frame and then they were screwed tighter and tighter until you could hardly breathe. I should add that before putting us on the frame we had one vest on then a layer of thick felt like they put under carpet, then another vest. Well, when they had you in a vice very tightly squeezed they dipped the bandages in hot water and round and round they went. At last they cut the canvas and lifted you off to dry.' Freda's Christian faith and St Peter's Church were the bedrock of her life. She died in1981 aged 78.