Hertfordshire Countryside
The Hertfordshire Countryside Magazine is a mine of valuable information about the county. It started as a quarterly publication in 1946 and later switched to a monthly and is still being published. The format has changed somewhat over the period but always contains articles on the county. Many of these articles relate to the county's history, while other refer to current matters and lifestyle issues. Articles range between one and four pages long usually including pictures. There are also many Readers' letters - which often contain personal reminiscences and other historical information. There are short news items and also book reviews.
Articles
are written in a popular style, and while some of the articles are simply
summaries of rewrites of information elsewhere some are unique sources of
information. For instance the issues copies contained an important series of
articles on The History of Hunting
in Hertfordshire by Major Douglas Neale which are essential
reading for anyone interested in the subject. These stimulated correspondence
in the Readers Forum, and some of these, such as
Reginald Hine's
letter about a pack of hounds in 1688,
contain information unavailable elsewhere.
Bound sets of copies are available in the larger Hertfordshire Libraries.
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A web site, The Hertfordshire Countryside Magazine (HCM) Collectors Web Site, has been set up by Bill Skipp and already contains detailed content lists of many of the earliest magazines. Bill will provide PDF files of individual articles for a small fee. |
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Now Published By |
It is clearly impractical for me to index all items of interest on the web site - but when I know of an article which contains useful information it is appropriate for me to include a reference, and perhaps a brief extract to encourage researchers to explore this valuable resource further.
I have access to a complete set from 1946 until the early 1980s, plus some later issues and I have decided to read through the early quarterly issues looking for articles of particular relevance to this site. These will be recorded as follows:
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There will be a web page for each year which will contain pictures of the covers - which can be enlarged - as some bound copies in libraries do not include the cover.
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For each issue there will be a selective list of contents (a full list will often be available on the HCM web site).
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Links will only be added to the contents list if there is significant relevant information on the target page - such as a specific note, or a picture. In particular, if an article title includes a place name in the place name menu a direct link is superfluous.
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Links from other pages to the Hertfordshire Countryside contents page will only be added if there is significant added value.
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Where the cover of the magazine contains the picture of a place, a thumb will be put on the place page so that a larger version of the picture can be seen.
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A list of the issues so far detailed on this site, including some prepared before this page was created, is given in the menu on the left. If this is missing click below |