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Latest News 20th July 2019

There will be an open day at St John’s Church, Lemsford from 11am to 3pm on Saturday 20 July arranged by Lemsford Local History Society. The church will be open with guided tours available and there will be a churchyard display listing the marked graves and showing who is buried there, with short life stories. This is special event to mark the 100 year anniversary of the unveiling of the war memorial in 1919. There will be a display board for each of the 20 men recorded on the memorial. At 1pm there will be a ceremony in the church. I have been asked to emphasise that this will NOT be a remembrance service but an hour long review of the years 1913 to 1919. There will be readings to illustrate life on the home front, songs from WW1 and poems from the war poets. For each year a narrator will read a review of the battles, politics, world events etc. The ceremony will end with an expert on Lord Cavan giving the same speech on the same steps where the speech was read 100 years ago to the day. Representatives of the 20 men will lay floral tributes in the churchyard. Car parking will be available just around the corner from the church at the Village Hall, Brocket Road, AL8 7TT. If you know anyone with links to Lemsford do please pass this message along.

Latest News May 2019

LLHG is a small group but all have worked hard to produce the Fete Display 2019. We end our year with a special day. On the 20th July 1919 the War memorial at St John's Church Lemsford was unvieled. On 20th July 2019 between 11-00 & 15-00 will will be marking this 100 years anniversery With a open church day incuding the graveyard our, display of the 20 men who died in WW1 and a ceromony to remember these men.

Lemsford Local History Group Meeting 23rd April 2019

The group met in the Annex to plan the 2019 fete disply Learn more

Walk, talk and lunch in Ayot

In March we enjoyed a great day out with a walk and talk in Ayot with our friends from Ayot, Peter and Valerie. This was open to the general public and it attracted over 25 people including members of Wheathampstead and Welwyn History groups.

Peter provided an excellent talk about the houses and history of Ayot St Peter. The walk was followed by an enjoyable lunch at the Red Lion. If you wish to join us for future events, please email Andy info@lemsfordhistory.co.uk to subscribe to our friends of LLHG distribution list or check our news website www.lemsfordhistorynews.co.uk.

The group is developing a more social aspect as well as our continuing research into all aspects of the history of Lemsford Parish including our 2019 Fete display ‘Tour of St John’s Graveyard’.

Lemsford Local History Group Meeting 22nd January 2019

The group met at the Crooked Chimney for a lunch time meeting. We had invited members from Wheathampstead History Society (click here to link to website) and Peter from Ayot History Group. (click here to link to website). Both groups gave a short talk about their work and aims, Ruth from Wheathampstead History Society is also a member of Hertfordshire Association for Local History.  (Details click here).

Andy opened the brief meeting by welcoming members and guests. He then reviewed our annual quiz in November 2018 and thanked the Group for the team effort of organising it and the bonus of £35  added to our funds, mainly due to an excellent raffle and sponsorship of drinks by Terry Morris.

The main topic of the meeting was our fete display in May -  the ‘Graveyard Tour’. Mary updated the group and arranged a meeting on March 26th 2019 starting at 2-00 to firm up ideas and produce the display. For more information go to page @Fete display 2019.

Our next event will be a tour of Ayot with our friends from Ayot, Peter and Valerie, followed by a lunch at the Red Lion. If you wish to join us please email Andy info@lemsfordhistory.co.uk .

We ended the meeting with a meal and catch up. I would like to thank all our guests attending and hope it added to a very enjoyable meeting

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Latest News Sept - Dec 2018

On Tuesday December

11th 2018 Lemsford Senior Residents which is made up of residents 60 years young and over from Lemsford, Stanborough , Cromer Hyde the group was formally known as Lemsford old people welfare committee had its annual Christmas lunch attended by nearly 50 residents at the Stanborough restaurant in WGC. A good time was had by all and it was great to catch up with old friends. A big thank you to the two Carol’s, Carol Hicks & Carole Payne who organised and hosted this event. Their hard work and attention to detail made it a great success and was appreciated by all that attended. Look forward to the spring outing. Details to follow.

The 5th Welwyn/Lemsford Quiz was enjoyed by all who attended. We renewed friendships with Welwyn, Welwyn Garden City, and Ayot History groups. A big thank you to our hosts Welwyn DHS who paid for the hall and Paul Jiggens for arranging the table and chairs to be laid out and projector facilities in place.

The evening was a success due to the members who attended working hard for the group. A big thank you to Marion for arranging the buffet which was excellent and well received and set up with the hard work of Marion, Carol and Doreen. Carol for buying and setting up the drinks which were sponsored by our guest Terry. Liz and Doreen organised the raffle and their hard work earned the group enough money to cover our costs of the quiz with a small amount left over to go into the group funds.

The winners for a second year running were team TOYA from Ayot, congratulations to them and thank you to all teams who took part and supported the event by buying raffle tickets. I look forward to next year’s quiz as I hand the baton over to Paul.

Dicken’s question confirmation. "Barkis Is Willin'Mr Barkis, Peggotty rushes out to give him a last embrace, some money, and some cakes she has baked. Mr Barkis is a solitary man on the lookout for a suitable wife, and he is well impressed with Peggotty. When he has sampled her cakes and learns that she does all the cooking, his mind is made up: Peggotty is the woman for him. Barkis wastes neither time nor words and tells David that when he writes to Peggotty he should simply inform her that he is willing to marry her.

November has proved a busy month. The group were invited to Hertford Association for Local History to their 39th Symposium ‘Hertfordshire’s Development from Roman City to New Towns’.The event was held in Lemsford Village Hall and Andy Chapman, Chairman of LLHG, was asked to present the housekeeping, not a bit of dusting and hoovering but informing a packed hall about the emergency exits, where the toilets were located and a detailed review of local hostelries based on many years of research by the group.

The event lasted over six hours and included 6 major talks on subjects as varied as ‘Saxon Burghs’ and ‘Medieval Market Towns’, ‘Writers and Thinkers on the Welwyn Garden City Idea’ to talks on Letchworth and Stevenage. There were also 4 short talks including one from LLHG titled ‘The Golden Age of Lemsford’.

LLHG provided a display on Armistice Day in St John’s Church showing the graves of the twenty men who died from the parish in WW1. We round off November with our annual Quiz with Welwyn District History Society, teams from the Ayots and Welwyn Garden City who will join us for a very enjoyable evening.

In September, Lemsford Local History Group started off the year with its AGM which was quickly followed by a meeting in October to discuss the 2019 Lemsford Fete display.

We try to plan our displays around events from the past with a significance. The archives show that a 100 years ago in an auction on 30 May 1919, 1,458 acres of land was sold for £51,000 to Ebenezer Howard, a pioneer of the Garden City movement, which eventually became the basis for Welwyn Garden City. Around the same time some other smaller parcels of land were sold and much of the rest let to tenants including Stanborough farm to its farmer and to Hatfield rural district council who built eight houses called Bury Cottages (also known as Crescent Cottages). They still stand opposite the Jaguar garage.

The second choice was Lemsford War Memorial which was unveiled in July 1919 which the group chose. We also decided to create a graveyard tour and highlight a selection of past residents of Lemsford Parish who we feel would be of interest to the public. We decided to go with Lemsford War Memorial and Grave yard tour. See you at the Fete in May 2019

We are a small friendly group with a core membership of 15. The cost of a yearly membership is £10 which entitles you to attend all events and reduced entry rates on the quiz and our annual treasure hunt. Being a member will provide you with the opportunity to research any local historical interest you have in the Parish of Lemsford allowing access to archives and many years’ experience from fellow members

LLHG 2001 to Present Day