The night of the fire
It’s not known when the original church of All Saints was built at Hertford. The Domesday Book mentions two churches in Hertford, while the first record of a vicar of All Saints’ occurs in 1248. The church was certainly re-built in the 15th century. Its interior originally presented a plain and simple appearance, but over the centuries this simplicity was rather lost through the insertion of a stained glass window at the east end, the affixing of numerous memorials to the walls, and the construction of galleries to accommodate the pupils of Christ’s Hospital and the Grammar School. The church was enlarged in 1824 “for the better accommodation of the parishioners”. Further alterations were made in 1872. These included the removal of the organ from its original position in the west gallery to a newly constructed portion on the north side of the chancel. The organ was reputed to be one of finest in the country and noted for its “sweetness of tone”.
The demise of the old church occurred early on the morning of Monday 21 December 1891. It was bitterly cold that morning when just after 5.00 George Betts, a baker, left his house in Church Lane to go to work and noticed flames coming from the roof on the north side of the church. He quickly alerted the policeman on duty, PC Gardener. The constable himself had passed by at 3.00 but had seen nothing amiss. The fire brigade was soon on the scene, but the men were unable to raise a good supply of water owing to the heavy frost. As a consequence, the fire quickly took hold and soon the whole roof was alight, the blaze no doubt accelerated by the vast quantity of old dry wood it contained.
The Hertfordshire Mercury described how the fire had “continued to spread with alarming rapidity, and when the roof fell in with a terrific crash, a volume of flames, sparks and smoke shot upwards, and the tower, which was wreathed in flames, appeared for a time to be a huge body of fire.” The heat became so intense that the lead roof melted and the peal of bells poured “in molten streams down the walls on to the floor of the porch below.” The steeple eventually crashed to the ground. Despite the best efforts of the fire brigade throughout the following day, little remained of the old church but the smouldering walls. And naturally, since the fire had been visible for miles around, a large number of people came to see what had happened. Many of them were reduced to tears at the sad spectacle.
Once the fire had been extinguished, the vestry door was forced open and the iron plate chest moved to the vicarage. A burglary had occurred the previous week and this had prompted the Parish Officers to remove the valuable plate from the iron chest and put the oldest parish registers in its place. The original books dated from 1598 but also contained copies of entries from an older register commencing in 1559. Though badly charred in places, the books were salvaged and repaired. Had it not been for the burglary, these ancient documents would certainly have been lost.
The cause of the fire was believed to be entirely accidental. All had been well on the Sunday, the services held as usual. Later in the day some volunteers had come along to put up the Christmas decorations and both of the stoves had been lit for their convenience. It was thought that the heat from the two flues had caused the roof beams to ignite, the flames then being fanned by a strong draught.
The Mercury described the fire as “a calamity of a very sad and far reaching character.” Many people in Hertford mourned the loss of their much loved church, and in particular the links with the past that it represented. The vicar, the Reverend Thomas Lingley, soon began to receive letters of condolence. Perhaps the most personal loss was that suffered by Malcolm Heywood, the organist at All Saints’; not only was his large collection of organ music completely destroyed but also several manuscripts including a manuscript copy of a new psalter on which he had been working for some considerable time. The psalter, it seems, was almost complete, needing only the 10th and 23rd days of the month to be added before being sent to the printers.
The interior of All Saints’ Church after the fire of 21st December 1891
In the aftermath of the fire a small photograph album was compiled and kept with the parish papers. Entitled “In Memoriam”, it showed the old church “in life” and “in death”. A great many photographs portrayed the shell of the burned-out building, its monuments damaged beyond repair and the north porch still standing. Such nostalgia for the old church was to linger on for many years. As late as 1910 William Frampton Andrews, churchwarden at All Saints’ for 22 years, wrote in The Mercury of the church he remembered as a boy. Conjuring up its atmosphere in the 1860s, he said the church “had what was known as a dustified, fustified, mustified odour, considering its age and that it contained several brick graves and vaults.” But, though saddened by the loss of the cherished building and nearly all of its ancient monuments, the Reverend Lingley expressed a generally held view that “the architecture of the old parish church was unsightly and wanting in architectural beauty.” They needed, therefore, to start thinking about what sort of building should replace it.
The exterior of All Saints’ Church after the fire of 21st December 1891
Rebuilding the church – the first steps
The immediate need was to procure temporary premises for church services. Arrangements were made for the Christmas service to be held in the Great Hall of Christ’s Hospital and it was hoped that further services could take place there too. However, the school were always mindful of infectious diseases breaking out amongst the pupils on their return from the Christmas holiday, and for this reason it was their policy to keep the school quarantined from the town. Thus from January 1892 church services were held at the Corn Exchange while the Council Chamber at the Town Hall was used for vestry meetings. In April Malcolm Heywood was despatched to London “to procure an organ which would be suitable for the services at the Corn Exchange.”
Another vital step was to settle the insurance claim. Despite initial doubts over the cause of the fire, the Sun Fire Office eventually paid out, and on Saturday 2 January 1892 Thomas Sworder, the insurance company’s local agent, received a cheque for £4200 – the total sum for the church and its contents – which he duly handed over to the vicar and churchwardens. The main fabric of the building had been insured for £2450. The remainder related to the organ, chancel and windows. The cost of erecting a new church was estimated to be about £15,000. This meant that £12,500 had to be raised – somewhere in the region of £1 million in today’s terms. To raise such a vast sum, it was absolutely essential to establish a Building Committee containing people of the widest possible influence across the county.
The vestry initially appointed 36 members to the committee. It was to be a most prestigious assembly, since invitations were sent out to as many noblemen and gentlemen as might be willing to join. In the event, the committee consisted of two marquises (Salisbury and Townshend), three earls, one viscount, one baronet, two bishops, four MPs and the High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, Edmund Smith Hanbury. Other gentlemen included JPs, aldermen, doctors, clergymen and tradesmen. Some of their names are still familiar to us in Hertford today – McMullen, Sworder, Abel Smith, Rayment and Andrews.
There was some difficulty in finding a chairman. This was possibly because the committee had rather high expectations initially as to who that chairman might be. The first person to be approached was the Marquess of Salisbury. In so doing, the vice chairman, Edmund Hanbury, offered “to relieve him of work which his lordship’s onerous duties prevented him from undertaking”. These “onerous duties” no doubt related to the fact that Lord Salisbury was Prime Minister! Perhaps not surprisingly, his Lordship declined. Viscount Cranborne (Lord Salisbury’s eldest son) was approached and declined, as did Earl Cowper. Eventually the role was taken up by Edmund Hanbury.
The Building Committee ended up with 93 members. Fortunately, they never seem to have all turned up at the same time. To make their task more manageable, sub-committees were appointed to undertake specific tasks. These included writing an appeal, canvassing for subscriptions, and obtaining plans for the new church.
Raising the funds
By March 1892 the sub-committee had produced its first appeal booklet and donations were pouring in, encouraged perhaps by the regular publication on the front page of the Mercury of the donors’ names and the sums they had given. Large subscriptions were obtained from the nobility and gentry. Of those who lived in the Hertford district, Earl Cowper donated £500, the Smiths of Woodhall Park and Goldings £150-£200, the Marquess of Salisbury and Edmund Hanbury £100, Baron Dimsdale £52.10s.0d. The town’s leading solicitors, brewers, drapers, building contractors and others contributed sums of between £20-£50. Many gifts were of a far more humble nature, such as the pound donated by “a domestic servant” and the ten shillings received from “one confirmed in the church”. There were also church collections and donations from all kinds of organisation, such as the employees of Hertford Post Office, the Haileybury Antiquarian Society, and the Committee of the Hertford Military Ball. By December 1892, just one year after the fire, a total of £6735 had been raised.
Money raising events were organised too, such as concerts and organ recitals, bazaars and fetes, amateur dramatics, and ladies’ cricket matches. In many cases facilities or people’s time were given free of charge. The Town Council waived its charges for the use of the Corn Exchange for concerts (although it was suggested that committee hire carpets as it was known to be a “wickedly cold place especially for ladies who will come to the concert in evening attire”). Similarly, professional actors waived their fees. The vicar’s son, Trevor Lingley, organised the sale of photographs, while musical performances were given by Malcolm Heywood – again at no charge. All these initiatives helped to swell the coffers.
In February 1892 Bertram Daltry, a local solicitor, was instrumental in forming a sub-committee for organising entertainments. One of their initiatives was to engage the services of Dudley Wilshaw, the son of a Hertford family and a professional actor. In December 1892 Mr Dudley Wilshaw’s Musical and Dramatic Entertainment was staged at the Corn Exchange. This was followed in January by an evening of amateur theatricals. The programme consisted of a farce, The Lottery Ticket, and a two-act comedy, Naval Engagements, starring Osmond and the Misses Mabel and Mary McMullen, Vernon Austin (printer), Albert Gilbertson (grocer), and Bertram Daltry himself. The evening was rounded off with a programme of music provided by Malcolm Heywood.
Such frivolity was not always well received. On the subject of the December performance, Edmund Hanbury expressed his opinion in a letter to Bertram Daltry in no uncertain terms:
When I consented to allow my name to figure among the patrons of your entertainment, I did not realize, doubtless owing to my own stupidity that it was a dramatic performance. If I had known this I should have declined to allow my name to appear. I do not like dramatic performances for Church Building. I have expressed my views strongly to this effect in committee, and am very sorry that I have stultified myself as to allow my name to appear as patron of an entertainment which I cannot conscientiously attend. Yours etc
PS I am sorry you chose the night of the Hertford ball!
Mr Daltry had clearly not consulted the gentry’s social calendar when planning his entertainments. This was also a matter of concern to William Clinton Baker who, writing from Bayfordbury on 12 December, said that “in consequence of the Ball it would be impossible for any of us, or of the servants, to be present tomorrow night.”
The fundraisers also encountered a feeling that they might be asking too much of the less affluent members of society. In an undated letter Eliza Ginn expressed concern that, if they organised a rummage sale at Whitsuntide, they might have a “brush with the poorer class …. as they (the working class) will have spent their money at the fete.”
Drawing up the plans
In the early months of 1892 the Building Committee began discussing specifications for the new church. A flint exterior was excluded. There was to be no visible brickwork inside and no replacements for the former galleries. The vaults were to be covered and sealed. The Townshend family vault, which had previously been accessed from within the church, would now be provided with a new entrance from the churchyard. Dimensions were specified for the space to be allowed for each person in a pew. The style of the church was to be at the architect’s discretion, though it was felt that “the use of a style from the 12th to the 15th century” would be the most appropriate. The appeal booklet published in March envisaged “a new structure of handsome proportions and solid construction, which shall not only provide for the large and attached congregation, but be an ornament to the Town and to the County.”
To assist them in their deliberations, the committee sought the advice of the Borough Surveyor and, upon his recommendation, they appointed an assessor named James Brook. The committee had initially considered holding an open competition to select the architects, but Brook argued that the best architects would decline to take part in such a competition. They therefore invited a number of ecclesiastical architects to submit portfolios of their work. Seven architects responded and an exhibition of their work was held at Shire Hall on 8-9 March 1892.
A meeting of the committee followed on 11 March. Thirty members were present. They had before them a shortlist of three architects and were asked to state their preference. Their choice fell very clearly on Messrs Paley, Austin and Paley of Lancaster, who received 22 first preferences. Edward Graham Paley, the head of the firm, was an ex-pupil of Christ’s Hospital, so he may have been known to some of the committee. The firm’s distinctive work was certainly well known, particularly in the north-west of England, where they had built and restored a great many churches.
They presented their plans to the committee in May 1892. The site was very restricted and for this reason, the layout generally echoed that of the old church. The main differences were an hexagonal north porch and the addition of a chancel aisle (now the Lady Chapel). The aisles would lead directly into the tower. The overall look of the church was to be quite different from its predecessor. The architects’ aim was to build a church “on a handsome scale of solidity rather than of a very ornamental character.” The ornamentation would therefore be confined to the tracery of the windows. As regards materials, the Lancaster-based architects clearly wanted to use the type of stone they knew best. Thus the outside and inside of the new church would be faced with red Runcorn stone, while the passages would be laid with Yorkshire flags.
Things proceeded steadily and by August 1892 the committee was able to include a picture of the new church in its appeal booklet. By October just over £9,000 had been promised. The committee, however, were mindful of just how much more money needed to be raised. It was finally decided, therefore, to build the church in two phases. Phase I would comprise the chancel and nave, Phase II the upper portion of the tower.
Sixteen building contractors submitted tenders for the work. The cheapest was that of Smith Brothers of Burnley, whose estimate came to just over £19,000. Some 67% of this figure represented the cost of constructing the chancel and nave. The specification ran to over 30 pages and was extremely detailed – it included, for example, a “Twyford Unitas plain white WC with mahogany polished hinged seat and a three gallon national noiseless cistern with brass chain pull and handle.” The contract was signed in November and a clerk of works appointed – Mr A. Fincham, who had worked on Edmund Hanbury’s house at Poles.
Demolition and construction
Work began on clearing the ruins of the old church. Some of the committee wanted to keep what was left of the tower until they were ready to undertake Phase II. However, the architects advised that it would be safest to dismantle the upper portion before work commenced on the chancel, and this was eventually agreed.
A slight setback occurred in February 1893 when the Hertford Corporation raised concerns over the possibility of poisonous gasses escaping from the vaults beneath the church, and they therefore “disallowed” the plans. However, the architects assured them that every provision had been to prevent this happening, and so the disapproval was withdrawn. In the meantime, the dismantling work went ahead and provided welcome temporary employment for local men.
On 23 March 1893, just 15 months after the fire, the foundation stone was laid by Countess Cowper. It was a very grand affair. The Mayor and members of the Corporation were in attendance, dressed in their civic robes. Music was provided by the bands of the Herts Militia and the Rifle Volunteers, while the Hertford Companies of the Volunteers provided a guard of honour. The hymn chosen for the occasion was, of course, The Church’s One Foundation. A time capsule was buried beneath the stone, containing, amongst other things, a photograph of the old church, a new 1893-issue half crown, and the most recent issues of the Times, Mercury and Herts Guardian.
Demolishing the tower
The tower was finally demolished and construction of the chancel could begin. The old north porch, which had remained pretty much intact, was left in place so that baptism, marriage and burial services could be conducted in a consecrated building.
During the construction there were at least two accidents. In May 1893 a stone mason had to be treated in the infirmary, after being badly injured by a chisel falling from the highest scaffold. In August two men, James Callan and James Judd, were working at a window on the north side when the scaffolding gave way. Fortunately, they only dropped to the level below and the only injury was a slight bruise sustained by James Judd.
By August 1893 the funds were nearly exhausted and so a further appeal was launched. In his covering letter, Edmund Hanbury commented: “As you will see, if you visit the spot, the new church promises to be all that we could desire and well worthy of the parish church of our County town”. One initiative undertaken on behalf of the Committee by William Andrews, was to try and raise money through the sale of the old bell metal. This had been salvaged from the ruins, cleaned up and stored by John Gray, bell-hanger of Castle Street. Andrews made enquiries as to whether a firm of bell founders might take it and use it for casting new bells. However, he was advised that it was not a good time for selling bell metal and so the hoard stayed where it was for the time being.
By September 1893 the building work had advanced to the point where it was necessary to remove the old north porch. A notice to this effect appeared in the local press. From now on baptisms, marriages and burials were to be conducted in what remained of the tower, and for this purpose a temporary roof was laid over the structure.
Rebuilding in progress
By 1894 the committee’s attention was focused primarily on the interior of the new church. There was much discussion about the materials to be used: which wood for the dado rails; whether to have granite or marble for the font; what stone for the pulpit; the design of the stained glass windows; and so on. Eventually – and perhaps not surprisingly – Lancashire marble was chosen for the font and Mansfield freestone for the pulpit. The deliberations about the pews were particularly involved and required the formation of a “Seats Sub-Committee”. A simplified design was finally settled on, this representing a “considerable reduction in the cost … [which] will much increase the comfort of the seats.”
At one point the committee intended to install electric light, but electricity did not come to Hertford in time. They therefore installed a special type of gas lamp which could be converted to electricity at a later date. Laying down the flooring was a particularly delicate operation, owing to the large number of vaults beneath the church. Because the footprint of the new church was to be larger than that of its predecessor, around 70 graves had to be moved. They included those of the organist Charles Bridgeman and his sister Anna Maria.
The half-completed church
The dedication of the new All Saints’ Church at Hertford finally took place on Wednesday 20 February 1895 at 3.15pm, the service being conducted by the Bishop of St Albans. It was just over three years since the fire, and the Building Committee was roundly praised for having achieved so much in such a relatively short time. Such universal acclaim, however, did not extend to the church itself. In the opinion of the Hertford and Ware Chronicle, it had a “stumpy & ungainly look”, being shorter than was intended. The seats were “squat and low”, while the dull green tint applied to the partition and furniture in the vestry was considered “bilious in the extreme.”
Whatever their views on the appearance of the new All Saints’, most people no doubt assumed that Phase II would proceed in fairly short order. In the event, however, it was to be ten years before the church was finally completed. The problem was primarily financial. The architects estimated that Phase II would cost £9300. Phase I had cost £15,000, of which £2000 had been raised through a bank loan. In August 1895 the Committee decided not to proceed with Phase II until this debt had been cleared. Having made that decision, the Committee then fell into abeyance and over the next four years only two meetings were called. In the meantime, the new All Saints’ stood there with its “stumpy and ungainly look”, still missing two bays of the nave, the north porch and, of course, the tower.
There was concern amongst the parishioners that the financial problems should not delay the provision of a new organ. A temporary organ was installed, thanks to a loan provided by Alexander McMullen to the churchwardens. The Misses Young then made generous donations of £300 each to the organ fund. This, together with the £800 received from the Sun Fire Office in 1892, provided a sum sufficient for the purchase of a new organ. It was built by the renowned firm of Henry Willis & Son and finally installed in 1899. Henry Willis, better known as “Father Willis”, had provided organs for many of the country’s cathedrals including Canterbury, Durham, Exeter and St Paul’s as well as the great organ at the Royal Albert Hall. He died in 1901, so the All Saints’ organ must have been one of the last that he worked on.
William Andrews meanwhile resumed his efforts to sell the bell metal. In February 1899 he was offered a price of 7d per lb by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. However, this was before the company realised the metal was actually mixed with brick and other refuse. They then reduced the offer to 5½d per lb. This price was accepted. John Gray then bagged it up and took it in 30 bag-loads to Hertford East Station. On 13 February the Great Eastern Railway (GER) delivered 28 bags to the Whitechapel foundry. The missing bags never turned up. The matter was investigated by the police and it was more than three months before they concluded their enquiries. Andrews eventually succeeded in obtaining compensation of £12.16s.6d from the GER. Altogether, the hoard of old bell metal brought in just over £220.
Also in 1899 Mrs Pearson of Brickendonbury offered to fund the great east window in memory of her late husband, George Pearson, who had died earlier that year. This spectacular stained glass window was made by Charles Eamer Kempe, known as the “Master of Glass”. It bore his wheatsheaf trademark in the lower left-hand corner.
The Building Committee was finally re-constituted in January 1901 to try and raise the funds needed to complete the work. Edmund Hanbury again took the chair, with Thomas Sworder serving as Honorary Secretary. An effort was made to find new members who would endow the Committee with the kind of prestige it had enjoyed in 1892. They were particularly keen to obtain the services of Sir George Faudel-Phillips of Balls Park, the current High Sheriff of Hertfordshire and former Lord Mayor of London. The Committee also sought to be more in tune with the times by inviting some ladies to join them in their deliberations.
Following the death of Queen Victoria on 22 January 1901, it was suggested that the new tower be called the “Victoria Tower” in her memory. Thomas Sworder consulted Sir Arthur J. Bigge, Private Secretary to King Edward, on this matter and the appropriate permission was duly obtained. In March a new “Victoria Memorial Tower” appeal booklet was published. It contained two illustrations. One showed the church as it then stood with its west end temporarily blocked, the other provided an architect’s impression of the completed building. In April Bertram Daltry was asked to resurrect the Entertainments Sub-Committee while Louisa Lingley, the vicar’s wife, set about forming a Ladies’ Sub-Committee to raise funds.
Inevitably, these fundraising efforts failed to arouse the kind of public enthusiasm which had been so evident in the aftermath of the fire. In November 1903 the Committee was still struggling to raise sufficient funds. Sir George and Lady Faudel-Phillips were again invited to join the Committee, and this time they apparently accepted.
By March 1904 the Committee was finally in a position to go out to tender. The cheapest tender was submitted by Hatch & Son of Lancaster, with whom the contract was signed in May 1904. Thomas Arthur Strong of Felixstowe was appointed clerk of works in June. It was at this point that Edmund Hanbury resigned as chairman, having served in that post for nearly 12 years. His place was taken by Charles Theodore Barclay.
In November 1904 the fund was still £3000 short of the required sum, and the contractor would only hold his price until May of the following year. The Committee then received a letter from a Mrs du Pré Thornton. She was clearly perturbed to learn that the Committee might not be able to complete the church. She therefore offered to make a donation of £2000, provided that the Committee could guarantee to complete the building work in every respect. The Committee concurred in this undertaking.
Unfortunately, the work then incurred certain unforeseen costs; in particular, an additional £50 was required for works to the foundations of the tower, owing to “inequalities of the ground”. Thus, despite Mrs du Pré Thornton’s donation, by February 1905 the Committee was faced with a shortfall of nearly £2000. The builders had almost completed the section they were working on, and needed to know whether they were to proceed to the final part. The Committee was worried about sanctioning this work. Some £1100-worth of promised donations had still not been received and the prospects for raising more funds were distinctly bleak. Finally the Committee agreed to negotiate a loan from Barclays Bank. Five of the Committee members provided the necessary guarantees.
Work soon got under way to complete the tower. At the same time the Committee finalised the inscriptions to be mounted within it. The one to the north of the west door would be dedicated to the memory of the late Queen Victoria, the one to the south (now in the “kitchen”) to the memory of Mr Frederic Stephen du Pré Thornton. The Thornton family had certainly earned this honour. Furthermore, when Mrs du Pré Thornton learned on the eve of the grand opening that the fund was still £400 short, she once again came up trumps with a donation of £500.
The date actually chosen for the Bishop of St Albans to dedicate the new tower was highly appropriate – 31 October 1905, the eve of All Hallows or All Saints.
The church completed
The very last meeting of the Building Committee took place on 14 November 1906. During the 15 years which had elapsed since the fire, they had raised over £22,000 for the fabric of the main building, and had received other gifts for the windows and interior furnishings. The total cost of rebuilding All Saints’ came to nearly £27,000, with a further £2000 required for the windows and the organ. They had proceeded in a cautious manner, not wishing to “incur liabilities beyond their means”, but had been forced in the end to raise a bank loan. The debt incurred in building the tower was apparently not cleared until 1963.
The bells were finally hung in 1907, and were presented by Thomas Sworder, William Andrews and Mrs du Pré Thornton. They were cast by Mears & Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the firm who had bought the old bell metal in 1899 and who were responsible for the bells at Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. The new bells cost £1157 and were delivered to All Saints in March 1907. The very first peal was rung by Herbert Baker, a member of a bellringing association called the Hertford College Youths’ Society of Change Ringers. The occasion was a wedding held on Wednesday 17 April 1907. Special permission had to be obtained from the Bishop before he could ring the peal, since at that date the bells had not been consecrated. The dedication ceremony took place on 11 May 1907.
Apart from the charred registers, the only items that could be salvaged from the old church were pieces of two 15th century brass memorials. These can now be seen on the wall of the north transept. One was to the master cook to Queen Katherine, widow of Henry V, who was aptly named John Hunger. He died in 1435. All that survived of the figure were the feet and the inscription. The other memorial was to Thomas Boose or Boole who died in 1456.
A large framed photo of the old church hangs to one side of the west door. On the other side can be found a cork model of the church. It was made in 1891 by Charles Walter Butler and was apparently completed only two nights before the fire.
In the aftermath of the fire a number of townsfolk rummaged through the remains and helped themselves to fragments of stone and shapeless pieces of metal. Some people later presented their finds to the museum, others kept them as treasured mementoes. When the site was finally cleared, the rubble was carted off to a field and lay there undisturbed until World War One when it was uncovered during a building operation. The townsfolk rummaged through it once again, and much of the stone was carted away to be used for making garden features. Some people constructed elaborate archways and small towers, others just made simple rockeries. All of which means that the rubble of the old All Saints’ Church still lies around us, buried in people’s gardens all across the town.
Sources of Reference
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS)
Deposited records of Hertford All Saints’ and St John’s Parish Records (D/P48); in particular the minutes of All Saints’ Building Committee 1892-1906
Deposited records of Longmores Solicitors (D/EL) 1465-1936
Deposited miscellaneous records on permanent loan to HALS from Hertford Museum; in particular those deposited by R.T. and W.F. Andrews (D/EHx) 1603-1930
The William Blyth Gerish Collection (D/EGr) c1898-1915
Papers of Gordon Moodey, East Herts Archaeological Society (D/EGm) 1754-1978
Glass slide collection of Arthur Elsden (D/EX888) c1860-1920
Miscellaneous photographs and postcards (HALS)
Hertfordshire Mercury and Hertford & Ware Chronicle 1892-1948
Hertfordshire Countryside Volumes 29/89/256 (September 1966) and 21/90/322 (October 1966)
Guide to All Saints’ Church 1971
Clutterbuck, R. 1815-30 The History and Antiquities of the County of Hertford
Volume 3 (Clutterbuck’s own copy with additional prints)
Redman, N. 2000, An Illustrated History of Hanbury Manor previously known as Poles London
Sheldrick, Gillian 1987 Three Centuries of Music at All Saints’ Church, Hertford
Hertford Museum
Booklets relating to the All Saints’ Rebuilding Fund (HETFM Books and Documents) 1892-1906
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