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Chipping
Chipping maps
Historic maps of Chipping and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Chipping maps
Chipping area books
Displaying 1 of 8 books about Chipping and the local area. View all books for this area
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Memories of Chipping
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Hertfordshire memories
My Memories of Wyddial
My father's people were from Wyddial, their name was Pinner. I was baptized at St. Giles, along with my sister. (My parents felt I should be old enough to remember this event). The dish in the font was cracked. I later stayed with my cousin Angela, she lived in Buntingford, her parents were from Aspenden. For the six weeks I was with her I worked for Mr Hodge, of Hodges Farm, Wyddial. My dad had worked for the same farm as a boy. I worked at the duck farm.
The Bell Hotel, Hare Street, Buntingford
I have recently discovered that my Great Grandfather John Main originally from Devon (a shoe maker) and then in Brixton, London as a Dairy Manager owned the Bell Hotel in Hare Street around 1905.
My Grandmother lived there as a little girl and would often tell us stories as children about how it was haunted and about secret panels etc and of an old huntsman who would sit on the garden wall!
I have several old postcards of it and the Street. He was still there in 1916 when my Grandmother married and I think on into the 1920s.
I just wondered if The Bell was still there?
My Great Grand Parents Wedding
My great-grand parents - Charles and Sarah Roblett - married at Layston. Their daughter Dorothy Roblett married Christopher McHugh, of Archers in Buntingford. The wedding here took place some time between 1920-1940, the church was open air and they married on Christmas Eve. Chris and Dorothy had three children, Christopher, Bernadette (my mother) and John. They passed away over 20 years ago now.
Looking After Mungo Walker at Wyddial Hall
My mother - Peggy Barker - looked after Mungo Walker, the grandson of the Heaton-Ellises when he returned from Kenya as a 7 year old in the late 1930s. This was only for a few months until he went to boarding school. She was supposed to be teaching him Maths but I think from the sound of it, they just had a lovely time going on walks and generally acclimatising him to life in England. She is nearing 90 years old now but remembers her time at the Hall very clearly. Mungo was apparently a very sweet little boy.
85 High Street And Mark Doel Butchers
The house on the right was and still is (2009) a butchers shop. My dad Mark Doel bought it from the Ward Lewises who had bought from Sid Howlett in the 1970s. I can remember there used to be stalls and stables behind the shop where animals were kept, as it was also a slaughter house. On one of my first visits to the shop before the family moved there the land where the Health Centre stands was wooded area and I think I can remember a small pond - I was very young! Twice vehicles came through the wall into the living room. Once when we lived there in the 1980s and another time in the 1950s we were told. I loved growing up in Buntingford.
66 High Street,
The far left of this photograph, just shows the Tudor house where I lived from 1950 to 1960. Two doors down is Mrs Castle's sweet shop/tobacconist, and beyond that (with the blind) is Borsberry's ironmongers. The High Street was packed with shops of every kind and Buntingford was a thriving community. Amazing to think, that our front door was just four feet from the main A10 London Road! I agree with Lindsay Doel that Buntingford was a great place in which to grow up. Every day I walked to the Primary School up the Causeway, and on the way, could usually walk over the ford across the River Rib on the Wyddial Road. The river was a great place of interest for us schoolchildren, especially when it flooded, which it did quite often before the dam/sluice was removed (some time after 1960). We often did the lovely walk up the Causeway, past the school, up to Layston Church, and this walk is still as good today (2011), through unspoilt... Read more
Fond Memories Of Layston Church
To give it the correct title, Saint Bartholomews Church, Layston is better known locally simply as Layston Church. It is thought this structure was constructed sometime during the 12th-13th Century AD and soon after it was realized, during heavy rains and flooding, it was difficult if not most times impossible to reach by folk residing on the wrong side of the river so to speak, so sometime during the 1600s the current Chapel Of Ease of Saint Peters was built to solve this problem within the town of Buntingford. Many of us as youngsters spent lots of happy hours exploring the areas around Layston Church during the 1940s & 50s (as had many others past). The structure around this time was beginning to look neglected and the worse for wear, although still being used for the purpose it was intended. A few years later it was the victim of a series of arson attacks by persons living within the vicinity and the last attempt resulting in severe weakening of the roof... Read more
