Berkhamsted
An Illustrated History
by Scott Hastie
[Alpine Press, published 1999, ISBN 0952863111]
The Town Hall in about 1900
This is an excellently produced "coffee table" sized book by a knowledgeable local historian with the help of a specialist photographer (David Spain) to restore the many old photographs used. There is adequate coverage of the main historical events - such as the Norman Castle, and the stationing of the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps in the town during the First World War. Of more relevant to most family historians there are descriptions of the main streets, the buildings they contain(ed), and there is often mention of the traders by name. There is even a chapter on the main literary personalities associated with the town - with potted biographies of Geoffrey Chaucer (c1343-1400), William Cowper (1731-1800), Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849), William Longman the publisher (1813-1877), J. M. Barrie (1860-1937), W. W. Jacobs (1863-1943), Dr George Macauley Trevelyan (1876-1962), H. E. Todd (1908-88), Graham Greene (1904-95), Claud Cockburn (1904-1981), Peter Quennell (1905-1993), Gerald Priestland (1927-1991) and Richard Mabey.
An essential acquisition if you want to know more about the town your ancestors came from.
There is a web page for Berkhamsted
| Locating
Books At the time this page was last updated second hand copies could be ordered online (and new copies were on sale in the Marlowes Shopping Centre at Hemel Hempstead |
Page updated April 2005