Books on Hertfordshire

Hatfield and Its People

The story of a new town, a garden city, an old village, a historic house, the farms and the countryside in a Hertfordshire parish

by the Hatfield W.E.A.

A series of booklets published between 1959 and 1966

"The booklets represent the work over a number of years of a group of students, ordinary citizens of Hatfield, in a tutorial class run by the Hatfield Branch of the Workers' Educational Association under the tuition of Lionel Munby, M.A., Staff Tutor of the Extra Mural Board of Cambridge University."

This is a wonderful series of booklets, hard to get hold of, which includes extensive well research details of people and places in and around Hatfield. 

Part 1    A Thousand Years of History

Part 2    The Story of Roe Green and South Hatfield

Part 3    Pubs and Publicans

Part 4    Newgate Street

1. Introduction

2. Newgate Street

3. Ponsbourne and Gacelyns

4. Tolmers

5. The Farms and the Village

Part 5    Roads and Railways

1. Communications through Hatfield

2. The Growth of Hatfield

3. Roads through Hatfield

4. The Great North Road

5. The Coming of the Railway

6. The Construction of the Main Line

7. Hatfield in 1850

8. Bridges and Level Crossings

9. Branch Lines

10. Suburban Trafic

11. Railway Travel in Late Victorian Times

12. Track Widening and the Loopline

13. Speed

14. Accidents

15. Roads in the Twentieth Century

Part 6    Law and Disorder

Part 7    Churches

This booklet quotes details of licensing the meeting places of Protestant Dissenters - and quotes details of 11 places certified under the Toleration Act, the first listed being:

These are to certifie that the house of John Leaper, in the parish of Hatfield, and county of Hertford is appointed and set apart for a place of meeting and assemblies for religious worship by the people commonly called Anabaptists. Witness our hands, James Harding, Hugh Smith, John Hill, John Rawlins, John Adkins, Wm. Woodger. Regd. 27th March, 1694.

Part 8    Schools

1. Introduction

2. Countess Anne's School (founded 1732)

3. The National Schools

4. School Log Books of the Past Hundred Years

5. Inspectors' Reports

6. Schools Since 1930

There is a list of schools and schoolmasters from 1752 to 1962.  The book is an essential read for anyone whose ancestors went to school in Hatfield.

 Part 9    Farming Yesterday and Today

Stanborough Farm (Book 9)

In 1751 Thomas Cox of Stanborough Farm [my 4-great grandfather] started an account book and Book 9 gives over two pages summarising and quoting from it. For instance in October 1752 two hundred sheep were brought for £136.15.0 while in the same year day labourers were employed at a rate of 1/- a day for men and 6d a day for women. At harvest time extra labourers were engaged for the month. Cox regularly attended Hertford market and attended fairs at "Roystone, Potten, Bigglesworth, Ellstow, Dunstable and Standon"

1. Introduction

2. Farming Contrasts in Hatfield

3. Farm Names

4. Origins of our Farms

5. Farming in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

6. Eighteen Century Farming

7. Later Eighteenth Century Hatfield

8. Nineteenth Century Farming

9. Woodside Farm

10. 1824 Farm Map

11. The 1838 Tithe Map and Later Records

12. Some Information from Herts Mercury and General Advertiser in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

13. Some Successful Hatfield Farmers in the Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

14. Scottish Farmers in Hatfield (Late Nineteenth Century)

15. Other Twentieth Century Farming

16. Some Prize Stock owned by Hatfield Farmers in the Twentieth Century

17. Scottish Farmers in the Twentieth Century

18. Loss of Land To Agriculture

19. Gravel Workings

20. Land Survey of 1937 and 1960

21. Conclusions

Part 10    Houses

Part 11a    Families & Trades (First Part)

Part 11b    Families & Trades (Second Part)

Part 12    The Twentieth Century

1. Introduction

2. The New Century

3. The Garden City

4. The New Towns

5. Index

 A Short Picture History of Hatfield and its People

Page updated May 2006