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Unknown Farmhouse, Essendon, circa 1900 April, 2011 |
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Sharon (sharon.orb @t googlemail.com) has recently come into the possession of an old picture on card of Essendon. It would appear to be a sizeable farm house. On the back it says: Uncle Herbert's house in Essendon. If you know of anyone this could belong to I am willing to post it on.
Old
pictures of farm houses and small country houses can be very hard to find,
So What can we say about this one.
The rectangular block style is quite common, and the front view is very similar to Heath Farm, where my great-grandfather lived, and which was built in 1830. None of the buildings behind the trees to the side are obviously farm buildings, and the one to the right of the picture has a very distinctive window, and if it is still standing should be easy to identify.
Uncle Herbert should be a clue, assuming he was an adult who owned or was a tenant in a house of this nature. A search of the most relevant censuses (1891, 1901 and 1911) showed only one possiblee Herbert. He was Herbert W Stocks, aged 60 in 1901, a retired Civil Service Clerk, and it seems he lived close to the Rose & Crown, Essendon, In the 1911 census he was a visitor at the Strand Palace Hotel - which means there is no information on his Essendon address. He is listed in Kelly's Hertfordshire Directory in 1908, 1912 and 1914 as a private resident (no address given) but not listed in 1902 or 1917.
The problem is that there is no obvious house that fits the picture close to the Rose and Crown on either late 19th century maps or modern maps, and any case Herbert may have moved house within Essendon.
As I have not matched up the house with Herbert Stocks, there must be a continuing uncertainty that I have the wrong Herbert. Can You Help?