Josephine Richards (jkatierichards @t yahoo.co.uk) writes: I have a death certificate from 1933 that gives the place of death for my grandfather as Libury Hall, Little Munden RD. Standen is the sub-district for registration. Was it a recuperative hospital for the London Hospital?

The manor of Libury, Little Munden, has a long history which is available on the online version of the Victoria County History, and a quick google for "Libury Hall" and Munden will show you that it is now a 38 bed care home with a Great Munden address.

In 1933, the year your grandfather died,  Kelly's Directory (under Little Munden) says: "Libury Hall has been converted into an institute for aged and indignant foreigners, and the land is leased by the Libury Hall Fruit Farm." So was you father a foreigner? and (tongue in cheek) did he have something to be indignant about.

More interestingly the 1912 edition records: "Libury Hall has been converted into a German Industrial and Farm Colony, to provide work and shelter for German-speaking unemployed and destitute men; the property is vested in three trustees, viz: Baron Bruno Schröder, C.A. Bingal esq. and Baron William Schröder."

In 1917, when the First World War was well underway, the entry had shrunk - but still mentioned the German connection: "Libury Hall has been converted into a German Industrial and Farm Colony, the property is vested in three trustees, viz: Baron Bruno Schröder, C.A. Bingal esq. and Baron William Schröder."

By 1922 the description the German connection had been lost: "Libury Hall has been converted a Farm Colony; the property is vested in three trustees, viz: Baron Bruno Schröder, C.A. Bingal esq. and Baron William Schröder."

By 1926 the entry was identical to the 1933 one quoted above. It may have been some kind of home ever since - but I don't have relevant data to hand.

A further google search provided a long article "The Settlement of Germans in Britain during the Nineteenth Century" which puts the German connection with Libury Hall in perspective. It says that Libury Hall "almost served as a German workhouse for the indoor relief of paupers." See home.clara.net/mawer/ppanayi.html. There are links between the German Hospital that opened in Hackney in 1845 and the London Hospital - with many reference available to you on google.

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A few days later Beth Gardiner (briangj @t tesco.net) wrote: Peter Kunz, my grandfather was at Libury Hall when it was a home for  elderly German men and he died there on 17.10.1932. I am wondering where he might be buried. On his death certificate was written "causing the body to be buried" under which is written "Libury Hall". I have never come across that comment before. Would this indicate that he was buried at Libury Hall, I know there was a chapel there? However the Parish Register indicates he was buried 20/10/32 (ref D/P 71/1/8.) An index of monumental inscriptions was checked but his name was not found , though other German names were there. I would be grateful for any help or advice you can offer. I would like to visit Lt Munden and my grandfather's grave, especially that is was only June of last year that I knew of his existence or for that matter any of my paternal German ancestors.
 

It would seem that at the time your grandfather died Libury Hall was a home for poor Germans and other foreigners. I know nothing about the management of deaths at Libury Hall but some of the mental hospitals in Hertfordshire had their own cemeteries where patients were buried in unmarked pauper graves  - and the arrangement may have been similar. If so, and you are lucky, there may be a memorial garden there. Unless there were family funds available there is unlikely to be a grave stone.

 

A quick google search has suggested two places where you might get information.

 

The most obvious is Libury Hall itself which is now a care home (present address in Great Munden) registered for elderly people with mental disorder or learning disability. [Contact Details]

 

The second is via the German Embassy. Its web site contains a news item entitled Charmaine von Mallinckrodt and Baron Bruno Lionel Schroder receive the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is dated 27 September 2006 and includes the words "And for many years you, Mrs. von Mallinckrodt, worked with tireless devotion for Homelands, the home for elderly Germans in London. You have – with Tim Schroder – been associated with Libury Hall, which provides vital help to Germans and other foreigners in need." This shows that the Schroder family have been involved with Libury Hall for about 100 years - so may well be able to help with your enquiry.

February, 2008

Vicky Ayadi (vickyayadi @t hotmail.com) of Stevenage writes: I am interested to find out about Libury Hall In Dane End, I know it is now a registered care home, but what before, what are its origins?

As mentioned above, the history of Libury Manor is given on the online version of the Victoria County History but there appears to very little easily available information on the building itself, before the Germans became involved.

An inspection of the building by someone who knows about English Architecture should be able to say something about the age of the current building. It would appear that is of no great historical/architectural interest as it is not listed in The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire or on the  Images of England web site, which contains information on listed buildings.

A quick check of the book The Protected Valley: A History of Little Munden, reveals that a John Cock was tenant of Libury Farm in 1841, his landlord being Graciana Spence, who died in 1858 when it when it became the property of Henry Lowry Jearrad. "At the turn of the century  Libury was converted into a German Industrial and Farm Colony to provide work and shelter for German-speaking unemployed and destitute people." The wording suggests that the current buildings may have been built circa 1900 - which would explain why there are so few nineteenth century references.

If you want to find more about Libury Farm in the 19th century your best bet is to find out who was living there at the time of the censuses.  To get you started I give details of the information in the 1851 census. It was listed as "Libury Farm" - with the husband/head of household away on the night of the census:

COCK	Mary	Wife	Mar	31	Farmers Wife	Codicote
COCK	William	Son	Unm	16	Farmers Son	Yardley
COCK	Elizabeth	Dau	*	6	Scholar	Little Munden
COCK	Emily	Dau	*	5	Scholar	Little Munden
COCK	Sarah	Dau	*	3	*	Little Munden
COCK	Eliza	Dau	*	2	*	Little Munden
COCK	John	Son	*	3mths	*	Little Munden
COCK	Mary	Visitor	Unm	41	General Servant	Yardley
SPRIFFINS	Frances	Serv	Unm	17	General Servant	Walkern
MUNT	David	Serv	Unm	15	Ag Lab	Yardley
LIVINGS	George	Serv	Unm	35	Ag Lab Ploughman	Yardley

In addition to looking up the entries in the 1841, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses you could fill in more details about the inhabitants using the techniques described in the tutorial. In addition HALS holds a number of interesting documents from the parish chest - some of which may contain references to Libury.

June 2008

Marj Bennett (marged36 @t btopenworld.com) of  Southport, Merseyside, writes: When I sent for my German great-grandfather's death certificate, I discovered that he had died of lung disease at Libury Hall on 12th June 1916.  I know that he was taken there from the Isle of Man, where he had been interned presumably as an undesirable alien. His name was John Henry Cors.  He had been in England since at least 1877 and had 12 English children.

I decided to have a "google" to look for other similar cases, and found a report headed "St. Stephen's House: Friends' Emergency Work in England 1914-1920." which was published by the Emergency Committee for the Assistance of Germans, Austrians and Hungarians in Distress. It quotes the case of one family that was helped, which also relates to a German who died at Libury Hall:

English woman, bad health, very thin, hysterical and unbalanced, affectionate mother, five children, youngest not weaned at outbreak of war. Husband, elderly German waiter, went to Libury Hall, first winter of war, as they were starving. Remained in internment till the beginning of 1917, when he was removed to the German hospital, dying of cancer. I first saw this family in Lusitania week. They were starving in a frightful Lambeth slum, woman half-distracted and on verge of suicide, refusing to accept any help, defiant and quite desperate. Children frightened and depressed, neighbours hostile; almost no furniture. Altogether a terrible case, even worse after the husband's death. The woman scrubbed theatre floors all day, returning quite exhausted; house-work not done; two babies, one an invalid, left entirely to the care of a highly sensitive little girl of seven, herself half-starved, verminous and failing in health, according to the doctor "from nothing but sheer misery, physical and mental." A very bad air-raid (1917) made matters worse. This child was then adopted and is now well, happy and very intelligent.

The following quote comes from the book "The Internment of Aliens in Twentieth Century Britain":

The Home Office established some unusual internment camps. For example, the premises of the German Industrial and Farm Colony were taken over for such a purpose. This happened at the start of 1915 because of 'an urgent need for an institution for elderly, infirm and rheumatic men whose health is likely to be very seriously injured by detention in Military Camps'. By May 1915, Libury Hall contained 188 internees and continued to operate as a farm colony producing most of its own requirements. The management remained in the hands of W. Müller, the pre-war director, who now acted under the supervision of a British Commandant, and a few police officers. This institution still had 83 inmates in February 1920."

As Libury Hall was officially used as an internment camp I checked the National Archives index and there are extensive records covering this use of Libury Hall which could well be worth checking, as some may include the names of the people interned there.

There is a web page for Little Munden

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

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