Christmas and New Year
Early Winter Snow
To children’s delight, but maybe not older folk,4 inches (10 cm) of snow fell on Sunday, 10th December. It’s the most snow we’ve had, certainly over the last four years. Clinging snow brought down several branches of trees. Photo: JB
Autumn Action Day 2017
Well done, and thank you, to everyone who helped with our action day on Sunday, 19th November.
Litter and dumping of various items is a constant problem on the Heath, particularly around seating areas and on the sides of Harpenden Road. We do our best to keep it clear and keep the Heath a welcoming area for public use.
Action days are not restricted to litter picking, and some of us worked on cleaning out the old water tank close to the old Judo Club.The tank was constructed during WW2 for a supply of water in the event of fire, but has since become a container for rubbish and leaves. We made a start on cleaning it out last November and this was the second attempt.
A determined effort revealed that much more rubbish, especially rubble, had been dumped than realised, probably to a depth of nearly 10 inches (25 cm) in one area. More work is needed.
Christmas on the Home Front – Bernards Heath in 1917
We’re having a tree at the St Saviour’s Christmas Tree Festival – our theme will be ‘Christmas on the home front in Bernards Heath in 1917‘. We know from the Roll of Honour that thirty-four young men (see below) from the Bernards Heath area died at the Front that year, and we know their names, but we don’t know anything else about them. 16 of the 34 were killed at Passchendaele.
Our tree will honour them, and remember what was going on back home that Christmas. Can you, or anyone you know who had family in Bernards Heath back then, help us with any information about them, or the Christmas customs locally in 1917? If you can help, please get in touch emailing Jenny Burley, jennyburley1@gmail.com
Jenny is making 34 of these decorative poppies for the tree
The 34 names from the Roll of Honour for 1917:
Captain Guy Frederick Bailey MC, 7 July 1917 (Western Front)
Private Charles Aubrey Bamford, 29 November 1917 (Western Front)
Lieutenant Henry Lee Betts, 20 September 1917 (Western Front)
Private Percy Buck, 31 July 1917 (Western Front)
Private Albert Edward Butcher, 24 December 1917 (Western Front)
Corporal Frederick Ernest Butcher, 20 July 1917 (Palestine)
Gunner Cyril Hugh Thomas Calvert, 9 October 1917 (Western Front)
Private Charles Ridgway Cooper, 12 April 1917 (Western Front)
Private Albert Josiah Critten, 28 April 1917 (Western Front)
Driver Charles Robert George Day, 29 November 1917 (Egypt)
Private Walter Dennis, 28 April 1917 (Western Front)
Private George Field, 20 October 1917 (Western Front)
Private Harry James Gates, 26 November 1917 (Western Front)
Private Charles William Harris, 23 July 1917 (Western Front)
Private Alfred Thomas Hopkins, 20 September 1917 (Western Front)
Private George Marcus Hornett, 22 September 1917 (Western Front)
Private Arthur Ivory, 23 April 1917 (Western Front)
Private Harry Ivory, 3 August 1917 (Western Front)
Corporal Ernest Walter Izzard, 31 July 1917 (Western Front)
Private James William Keech, 21 September 1917 (Western Front)
Bombardier Henry John Manners, 21 October 1917 (Western Front)
Private Kenneth Ernest Knott, 21 September 1917 (Western Front)
Midshipman Richard Owen, 14 June 1917 (Atlantic Ocean)
Sergeant William James Payne, 31 July 1917 (Western Front)
Private Harry Peacock, 28 April 1917 (Western Front)
Lieutenant Geoffrey Edward Sewell, 2 September 1917 (Western Front)
Gunner Bertram Christian Sexton, 1 November 1917 (Western Front)
Lance Corporal Alfred Stone, 24 June 1917 (Western Front)
Private Charles Stratton, 28 March 1917 (Western Front)
Gunner William Taylor, 30 September 1917 (Western Front)
Gunner Arthur George Tyler, 8 July 1917 (Western Front)
Captain Harold Henry Underwood, 19 April 1917 (Palestine)
Private Frank Warwick, 8 December 1917 (Western Front)
Quartermaster Frank Arthur Wilkinson, August 1917 (on active service in the merchant marine)
Missing website
Apologies if you missed the FoBH website over the last two weeks. It was hacked, and when this happens, you don’t want to be in Russia on the first day of a holiday as I was. Nearly all of the content was recovered from backups, but it can be a tedious, complex process. Rod
Missing a Bike?
Your bike? – this one was found on the Heath, and in another location the child’s bike below.
Missing website?
Apologies if you missed the FoBH website over the last two weeks. It was hacked, and when this happens, you don’t want to be in Russia on the first day of a holiday as I was. Nearly all of the content was recovered from backups, but it can be a tedious, complex process. Rod
Travellers back again
Travellers make a very unwanted return to the old Fire Station site following a recent earlier break in. They moved sturdy fencing and heavy blocks to dump more rubbish. See above and below. Update: it has been cleared again at considerable cost to SADC.
Parking improvement on Sandridge Road Wastes
The Sandridge Road Wastes are the grassed areas on both sides of this road designated as Common Land. Parking is a major problem on the road, especially between Boundary Road and Bernards Heath Infants School, the area marked in blue in the map below.
In memory of Peter Butcher
At the end of January Bernards Heath lost Peter Butcher, almost certainly its oldest resident. Ninety two years old, he had lived all his life in Upper Culver Road, bar military service at the end of WW II. At one time Butchers were to be found at several addresses in the streets to the east of the Heath. Their occupational speciality was well-sinking. After leaving the army Peter briefly tried the family business, then shoe-making, the Ariston suet factory on the Heath, finally settling for aircraft at de Havillands, Hatfield, for the rest of his working life.
Continue reading “In memory of Peter Butcher”