Hertfordshire Genealogy: Places: Ayot Saint Larrence

Detail of Charles Smith Map, 1808

Towns & Villages in Herts

Ayot Saint Lawrence

Adjacent Parishes: Ayot Saint Peter, Codicote, Kimpton, Sandridge

It was in Broadwater Hundred and the Welwyn Union

Victoria County History

Post card published by Mrs Jisbella Georgina Lyth, Post Office, Ayot St Lawrence, Welwyn

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Extracts from Bernard Shaw's

Rhyming Picture Guide to

Ayot Saint Lawrence

Pass on; and with delight behold

Our Abbey Church, five centuries old

Here Ayot Cottage you may witness

And marvel at its names unfitness

For cottagers can not afford

In such a style to bed and board

This hall The Manor House is called,

Edward the Sixth its lord installed.

No lord can now afford to dwell there

And guarantee the building's welfare.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) moved to The New Rectory (now Shaw's Corner) at Ayot Saint Lawrence in 1906 and the above extracts come from his last completed work. He took all the photographs himself and wrote the rhymes shortly before his last illness. He left Shaw's Corner to the National Trust and it is open to the public.

< This postcard "The Chucker Out" shows George Bernard Shaw at Shaw's Corner shortly before his death.

His house became the property of the National Trust and became a place of pilgrimage, as this "The Bernard Shaw Special" ticket shows.

George Bernard Shaw's House

Book: Ayot Rectory by Carola Oman

Booklet: George Bernard Shaw and Ayot St Lawrence

from Afoot in Hertfordshire by Frank Dawes

Occupations: Silk Making

Ayot St Lawrence Ruins
Published by F. Chennels, Post Office, Wheathampstead
Posted 1915 but back suggests a date nearer to 1905

Detail showing the grave boards of Daniel and Edith Threader

These grave boards must have been about 60 years old when this photograph was taken. Edith Threader was buried 7th October 1839, aged 67, [Herts Burial Index] while Daniel Threader is listed as a 65[-70] year old gardener at Ayott Mansion in the 1841 census. The couple may be the Daniel Threader and Eady Tibbit who married at Totternhoe, Bedfordshire on 9th November 1794. The writing on the furthest board is unreadable and might be that of the infant William Threader. son of Daniel and Edith Threader who was buried on 16th August 1807.