Books on Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

The Little Guide

Herbert W. Tompkins

1903

Later editions 1922, 1928, 1936

See also 1957 edition by W. Branch Johnson.

Available on CD from Archive CD Books

Broxbourne Church

This useful little guide book starts with a railway map and about 45 pages of general background on the county, including a few pages identifying the county's famous men. It then continues as a gazetteer of the county which is useful as it identifies many small hamlets which are overlooked in other sources. I note the following examples:

Cromer Hyde (1½ mile S. from Ayot Station, G.N.R.) consists of a farmhouse, the Chequer's Inn, and a few old and picturesque cottages. The Nearest Church is ½ mile S. E, at the corner of Brocket Hall Park.

Gallows Hill (½ mile S. from King's Langley Station, L & N.W.R) is a hamlet. The Booksellers' Provodent Retreat is here. It is also the name of a hill between Hertford and Ware, on which stands the Joint Isolation Hospital.

Green End is the name of three hamlets, (1) in the parish of Little Munden, about 4 miles W. from Standon Station; (2) in the parish of Sandon, about 4 miles N.W. from Buntingford Station (both stations G.E.R); (3) ½ mile N. from Boxmoor Station, L.&N.W.R.)

Gubblecot (3 miles N.W. from Tring) is near the Aylesbury Canal. The Tring reservoirs, famous for the rare waterfowl shot on those waters on many occasions, are a little to the S.

Water End, on the River Gade, is on the S.W. confines of Gaddesden Park. There are also hamlets of the same name (1) close to Ayot Station, G.N.R. [see Water End]; (2) at the E. extremity of Mimms Park, 2 miles N.W. from Potter's Bar Station (Middlesex).

The book contains about 25  full page views of places in Hertfordshire. The line drawings have reproduced well, but the photographs look dreadful. However if you extract the photographs and digitally adjust the tone scales useful, but not brilliant, views emerge, as the example of Aldbury church show.

Aldbury Parish Church

It ends with a helpful index of the people mentioned in the text, and a detailed map which can be zoomed in to produce the smaller detail at a reasonable resolution

This CD would make a useful addition to any genealogical library where there is an interest in Hertfordshire..

For sample extracts see Railway Map - 1903; Harpenden, Preston, Waterford, Willian

~~~~~~~~~~

Hertfordshire Little Guide

W. Branch Johnson

1957

This book is a complete rewrite of the earlier editions -with new pictures and new descriptions of the main towns and villages - but it leaves out many of the minor hamlets mentioned in the 1903 edition.

For a sample comparison with the first edition, and other sources see Willian.

Page updated September 2006