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Wendy Austin has published a number of limited edition books on Tring to raise money for local charities, including the Tring and District Local History and Museum Society, and these are detailed below.

 

 

Tring Personalities

by Wendy Austin

2000  [ISBN 0 9537924-0-4]

This book contains short biographies of the following people who are connected with Tring - often with portraits of other pictures.

John Brown (1795-1890) brewer, sportsman and entrepreneur

Nell Gywn (1650-1687) favourite of King Charles II

James Osbourne (1857-1928) Victoria Cross

Rev. Arthur Pope (1841-1921) Vicar if Tring 1872-1881

Emma, Lady Rothschild (1844-1935)

Sir Robert Whittingham (14??-1471) Lord of the Manor of Pendley

Professor Keith Simpson (1907-1985) Home Office Pathologist

Thomas Glover (1822-1914) Leading local Baptist

Henry Guy (1631-1710) Built Tring Park House

Joseph Budd (1886-1977) wrote accounts of Tring

Mrs Humphrey Ward (1851-1929) Authoress

Arnold Ward (1876-1950) Member of Parliament

Arthur Gutteridge (1886-197?)

Sir William Gore (1644-1707) of Tring Park

Ruth Osbourne (167?-1751) "Witch"

Karl Jordon (1861-1959) of Tring Museum

Robert Hill (1699-1777)

The Mead Family (1804-1941) of New Mill

Rev Charles Pearce (1847-1920) Baptist Minister

Dorian Williams (1914-1985) of Pendley

 

 

More Tring Personalities

by Wendy Austin

2003  [ISBN 0 9537924-1-2]

Stanley Lief (1892-1963) of Champneys

Rev Charles Lacy (1795-1890) Parish Minister

Able Seaman Stanley Collier (1888-1916) died on HMS Hampshire

Private Edward Barber V.C. (1893-1915) of the Grenadier Guards

Air Mechanic Reginald Rolfe (1891-1916) of the Royal Flying Corps

William Kay (1777-1838) Purchased Tring Park in 1825

Euphemia Myddleton (1875-1911) Botanist

Ichthyosaurus

Henry Hobson (1840-1929) School Teacher

Victor Lownes (b 1928) of Playboy

Alderman Amos Hinton (1844-1919) born Tring, became Mayor of Middleborough

Sir Stephen Collins (1847-1925) M.P.

Norman Shelley (1903-1980) Broadcaster

Dame Peggy Ashcroft (1907-1991) Actress

Sir Godfrey Tearle (1884-1953) Actor

Bishop William Linwood (137?-1444) Rector of Tring

Sir Stirling Moss O.B.E. (b 1929) Racing Driver

Pat Moss (b 1935) Show Jumper

Sir Gordon Nairne (1861-1945) Director of the Bank of England

Philip Darvell (1884-19??) and Jacob Bearinstain (1891-1973) Early Tring Cinemas

Gerald Massey (1828-1907) Poet

Dodo

Further Tring Personalities

by Wendy Austin

2004  [ISBN 0 9537924-2-0]

 

Robert Stephenson (1803-1859) - Railway engineer

Harriet Jellis (b 1923) - Lock Keeper on the canal

Violet Higginson (b 1932) on the canal

Joseph (1874-1942) and Kenneth Timberlake (1909-1972) of Hastoe Farm

Lionel Martin (1878-1945) - Aston Martin

James Stevens (1808-1911) - Long lived farmer worker

Sir Francis Verney (1584-1615) of Pendley Manor

Private Henry Harding (1773-18??) - Seaman on HMS Victory at Trafalgar

Marie Jack (1912-2002) - Arts Educational School

Charles Seabrook (1865-1948) Kennel man for the Rothschilds

Pomeranian (dogs)

Alice Burnham (1888-1913) murdered by George Joseph Smith

Honorable Sir Harry Vaisey (1877-1965) High Court Judge

Christopher Mead (1940-2003) British Trust for Ornithology

Doctor Edward Cockayne  (1889-1956) - entomologist

HMS Tring (1918-1927) Minesweeper

HMS Aeolus (1940-1946) Land-based "ship" in Tring High Street

HMS Arctic Hunter (1929-1952) - minesweeper sponsored by the town

Amphyllis Washington (1602-1654) ancestor of George Washington

Glis glis - edible dormouse - introduced by Lord Rothschild

 

 

The Tring Collection

Local Poetry

Collected by Wendy Austin

2005  [ISBN 0 9537924-2-9]

Over the years, quite a lot of poetry has been written about Tring. Possibly this is because a handy five-letter name for one's town calls to mind quick and easy rhymes. If we had been blessed with a name such as Hemel Hempstead, Leighton Buzzard, or Aston Clinton, fewer local bards may have been inspired to take up their quill pens, pencils, or biros.

Readers may agree that this selection includes verses that are good, indifferent, or really bad. But, like looking at paintings, appreciation of poetry is an individual taste and can provoke a great variety of different reactions. What to one person is deeply moving, to another is maudlin and sentimental. Likewise, what is one person's sublime rhyme is another's unwitty ditty. All I can hope is that everyone will find something in this little book that appeals. The selection includes poems either about our district, or written by men and women who lived in the area and penned verse about other diverse subjects.

The poems and illustrations have been collected from many sources, and I am especially grateful to all who gave permission for their work to be reproduced. My thanks also go to others who contributed information and illustrations.

Wendy Austin

Section Headings: Life in Tring; Railway and Canal; The Tring Poet (Gerald Massey); Pastimes; Cricket' Military; Villages and Countryside;Tring Park; Why?; High Society; Epitaphs

 

 

Tring Gardens

Then & Now

by Wendy Austin

2006  [ISBN 0 9537924-4-7]

  1. The Early Years

  2. Horticultural Society

  3. Market Gardens and Nurseries

  4. Tring Park Gardens - the Rothschilds

  5. Head Gardeners

  6. Railway Station Garden

  7. Herbs and Wild Planrs

  8. Orchards

  9. Allotment Gardens

  10. Plants from Abroad

  11. School Gardens

  12. Memorial Gardens

 

The Second Tring Collection

2007

ISBN 0 9537924 5 5

 

Illustrations

  • The Harrow Akeman Street, c.1960, shortly before demolition.

  • The Bricklayers Arms, and The Brittania, Aylesbury Road, c.1900

  • Cholesbury Windmill, c.1928

  • Katherine Mansfield

  • Trade token from Tring-Jonction

  • Locomotive GE U23B, Quebec Central, Railway, approaching Tring-Jonction

  • Hermon Ould

  • Wartime letter heading of P.E.N.

  • Title page from Hermon Ould's book of poems

  • Mary Wimbush and Louis MacNeice

  • Ivy House, premises of printer, Ebenezer Bird

  • Louis Wain's drawing of a Slender Loris for his 1895 article on the Zoological Museum

  • Park Street, Easter Monday 1963. Photo by Frans Smit

  • Oliver Campbell reading his poem

  • Hugh Dunphy receiving his certificate from the Mayor of Tring, MikeJames

  • Charles Haddon Spurgeon

  • Tring Workhouse, c.1832

  • Pitstone Chimneys at night, shortly before demolition

  • Jorgen Peter Müller

  • Ivinghoe Hills, c.1905

  • Gerald Massey in old age

Contents

Tring Poets

Cholesbury Mill

Trains

Local Literati

Zoological Museum

Spreading the Word

More Local Verse

Gerald Massey: The Tring Poet

 

Tring Silk Mill

2008

ISBN 978 0 9537924 6 7

 
Locating Books
Copies may be obtained from the Tring and District Local History and Museum Society or may be obtained online. (Most are now out of print)
     
May 2010   Brief details of two new books added
September 2012   Contents list added for 2nd Tring Collection