Caroline (caroline.magee @t paradise.net.nz) from Auckland New Zealand, writes: I have been researching my paternal grandfathers family and have found that the family lived at Turners Hall in one form or another for some time. His great grandparents Charles and Sophia Hester and their 2 daughters resided there in the 1861 census. Sophia Hester and her two daughters were at Turners Hall during the 1881 census with her daughter Eliza Taylor as head of the house. My grandfather's sister Gladys Cornelius and her grandmother Sophia Catte were there during the 1901 census. We have letters from Turners Hall dated from very early 1900s. We have a photo of my grandfather as a young boy outside Turners Hall taken in the 1890s. I am interested in the history of the place and whether the family owned the farm or just leased. I would also love to know when the family connection ended.

Place Names of Hertfordshire links Turner's Hall to a John Turnour (Feet of Fines 1416) and it is shown on Dury & Andrew's Map of 1766. The above comes from Charles Smith's map of 1908.

The following table expands the information you have as to the occupiers of the farm from census and trade directory data.

Some additional notes:

• Beware: Wheathampstead and Harpenden are often (for historical reasons) considered together - and there is another Turners Hall in Wheathampstead.
• The 1901 entry is disastrously indexed on Ancestry the occupants being Sophie Culle & Gladys K Comelius
• The interpretation of the 1891 census is unclear. Frederick J Kidman is given as a farm manager - but also as a boarder - so it is not clear that he was employed to farm Turners Hall Farm although he probably was.
• Frederick James Kidman was the grandson of Thomas How and Sarah Burchmore shown of Who is related to who? - and hence is a cousin of mine.

If you can add to the information given above tell me.