The Pubs of Lemsford Parish
When the Great North Road went through Lemsford it is said as many as 150 coaches a day. Carriages and wagons would pass through the village daily. All the inns would have offered food and drink for the travellers. Accommodation would be provided if required. Wheelwrights and blacksmiths were available to service the wagons and horses. Stabling for the horses would also have been provided.
Pub in and around Lemsford
Why was the 1800s the golden age? This was the time before the railways formed the principle transport to the North. The principle transport was the stagecoach. In 1836 over 340 routes were licensed to travel to and from London. Most coaches 4 passengers inside and 11 on the roof, nearly all had distinctive names and operated from Inns in and around the city of London. Map on the left shows all the Pubs in th Parish including the ones long gone. See Map below
If we take the year 1836 Hertfordshire had nearly 100 coaches passing through it every 24 hours, including 11 mail coaches which left londons general post office at 8-00pm. if you add the private wagons you can imagine the hustle bustle of life in Lemsford. In our records we have time tables for the Post office coaches to Leeds (took 20 hrs 52 minutes), The Glasgow coach (44 hours) as well as private companies, Express (Barton upon Humber) The times (Bedford) The perseverance (Boston) ( read out list) all of these coaches would leave the great inns of London such as ‘ Bull & Moth’ St Martins le Grand, ‘George & Blue Boar’ Holborn, ‘Kings Arms’ Snow Hill ‘Boar and Castle’ Oxford street and many more great inn of London.The inns and pubs, these could be found on the main Great North road that went through the village, the route started in the area called Stanbrough which had a pub called the Bull on the road leading in the coaches would follow the road now known as Brocket Road and when they reached the Church. Down into the Village Past the Roebuck and Sun Inn , up the side of the Long Arm & Short Arm following the Gret North Road to the Waggoners onward to the Red Lion and leaving the Parish Bound for Welwyn Village
The Families of Lemsford
A leading Member of our History group Shirley Knapp has researched her family the Cochranes. She has provide images , articles and many wonderful memories
The Tully family are a special interest to one of our leading member Doreen Wright. The find out her interest, read her article on William Henry Gardiner.
Bob Eagles a regular member of the group has produced many memories of the Eagle family. He has produce images and family trees that we have open to the public via our website.
Dr Julie Moore from Hertfordshire University who enjoys our meetings and has helped the group to understand the input the university in the local community with her website, Herts Memories. She has connections with the Bunnages via her husband.
The Wren's - The Wren’s of Lemsford go back to 1851 according our records. The family always flock to our display at the fete and have provided us with images and memories. During our research for WW1 we uncovered the contribution to the war effort.:
A good friend of the group Jack Brown sent us his memories of his grandfather ‘ The Victorian Gamekeeper’ A member of the group who designs websites built a site to record all of his article about his uncle Ernie Brown landlord of the Chequers (The Crooked Chimney) and life in Cromer Hyde. The site is called H.J.Browm Memories of Cromer Hyde
The first Flitney recorded in our Archives is Daniel aged 35 in the 1840 Census. He had a wife, Sarah (30) and sons George & Joseph. One of the established families who made the Parish of Lemsford so special.